Shadow
by Cimas
Summary: Sequel to Enlightenment. This is a LSM Exile&Brianna Fanfiction that takes place two years after the death of Kreia. The Exile and his crew have been searching endlessly for Revan. Can they find him or will they face a new kind of evil?
1. Rough Night

Disclaimer- I do not own the rights to Star Wars Kotor 1 and 2 or their characters and likeness.

Author's Notes- Here it is, the first chapter of my second story. This will be non-canon for the most part, so SWTOR players don't expect too much mention of the Sith Empire. It's not that I have anything against it, I just didn't want to put it in my story. Like Enlightenment you may notice some characters being a little OOC (ex. Brianna) but do not worry. There are reasons for most of them, and I'll try to convey them in the best way I can. I simply ask for you to bear with me.

Ch. 1

Darkness surrounded him, there was no visible light to be seen anywhere. Andrew was unaware of where he was or why he was even there. He cautiously felt his way forward with every step he took, making sure to not trip himself up, As Andrew walked further and further into the void, he soon developed the sense that he was not alone. Palming the lightsaber on his belt, he slowly turned around to see a dark hooded figure standing in front of him in the distance. Andrew called out to the stranger, but there was no response. All of a sudden a red beam extended out of the sleeve of the dark figure's robe, and was then pointed menacingly in Andrew's direction. Igniting his own blue lightsaber, Andrew readied himself for a battle and dropped into a defensive position. The unknown assailant made the first move swinging down low at his leg, Andrew quickly deflected the attack and returned with a slash at the figure's head. However, the figure ducked out-of-the-way, and came right back at him. Andrew tried to block but he found himself moving slower than normal, his arm was struggling to raise up and come to his aid. The red blade was careening downwards for the kill. It wasn't till the beam was mere inches from his neck did Andrew burst out of his sleep in a cold sweat and awake from his nightmare. Sitting upright Andrew turned slightly in his bed to see that his wife Brianna was still sound asleep and had not been disturbed by his sudden thrashing. This brought him a small measure of relief to know that at least she was still peaceful. It didn't matter if he had been struggling with sleep recently as long as Brianna got as much rest as possible, As Andrew looked down upon her he found it hard to believe that they were going on their second year being married. It felt like only yesterday when he was sitting next to her on the sandy dunes of Tatooine asking for her hand. He kissed her lightly on the cheek and slowly slipped out of their queen sized bed to go to the refresher. The silence through the Ebon Hawk when everyone was asleep felt so haunting to Andrew; it was as though there was no life aboard even though he knew that was not the case. When he reached the medbay ,which was doubling as the refresher, he splashed water in his face from the sink and looked at himself in the mirror. Andrew's appearance had changed since he battled Kreia two years prior. He now featured a fully grown mustache and goatee, and his once short blond hair had grown to almost shoulder length. However, the most recent change to his facial features was that his eyes had now turned baggy and sunken from his lack of sleep.

"You look like you're having a rough night." Andrew quickly turned around to see his childhood friend Bastila standing in the doorway wearing a silk nightgown and looking slightly concerned in the way she stared at him. "It was that dream again wasn't it?"

Shaking off the surprise of seeing her Andrew took a deep breath and responded "Yea but this time it was worse. In this dream I couldn't fight back. My arms were frozen in place and I could not move. I was helpless to defend myself against the dark figure's attack."

Bastila moved into the room and leaned against the operating table. "Normally I would dismiss these dreams you've been having as simply nightmares. However, since this particular nightmare has been plaguing you for the last month and you are highly force sensitive, it makes me wonder if there is more to these dreams than what we are seeing, I would hazard to guess that what you are experiencing are visions of some sort. Of what however, I cannot clearly say right now."

"Well whether these dreams are visions or not, I have no intention on seeking out their meaning. The hooded figure that I faced seemed to desire my head unattached from my shoulders, and honestly I'm not feeling too eager on giving him the opportunity to do so."

Curious by that statement Bastila turned to Andrew and asked "So does that mean you're going to postpone the mission and lay low for now?"

Unfazed by the question Andrew answered "No, we're going to continue searching across every planet until we find more information on his whereabouts."

Bastila sighed, walked over to him, and put a hand on his left shoulder. "Andrew that was meant to be more of a request than a question. You've been at this for too long, you need to slow down for a while and recover."

However, Andrew calmly grabbed her hand and took it away from his shoulder "Bastila I'm not going to give up on Revan. I made you a promise that we would find him no matter how long it took."

Bastila then pulled her hand away from Andrew's grasp and with a slightly irritated tone said "I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm not asking for me. I'm asking for Brianna. In her current condition you have to take precautions to make sure she is safe, You must realize that is the best thing to do for her right now."

Getting semi-frustrated himself Andrew shot back at Bastila. "How do you know that is the best thing for her! We are overloaded with medical supplies given to us by the Republic, the Ebon Hawk is currently carrying one of the most powerful cloaking devices this side of the galaxy, and to top it off we have a crew that are not only battle tested in high pressured combat but are also close friends to Brianna whom would never let any harm come to her."

"There is more to it than simply making sure she doesn't get attacked" argued Bastila. Her aggravation was even more evident now. "You have to make sure that in this particular situation she is as comfortable as possible. As a fellow woman I can only imagine what she must be going through right now."

"I really wish you two wouldn't argue about me when I'm not present." Both Andrew and Bastila turned and saw that the subject of their discussion was now the one standing in the doorway, Brianna. She no longer carried the look of a seasoned and trained warrior. Her once crew cut shaved white hair had now grown beyond the nape of her neck and reached down to the upper part of her back. The bruises upon her arms and legs from constant combat sparring had faded. However, the most obvious change to her appearance was that her stomach had developed into a nice round outward shape. The once impassioned Echani warrior was now fully pregnant with her first child, and wore similar bags to her husband's under her eyes but for a whole different reason.

Andrew looked at her somewhat confused. "Brianna what are you doing up?"

"Well my dear husband I rolled over in our bed and noticed that you weren't in it" she said sarcastically. "It may also be the fact that I could hear the both of you going at it clear across the hall. Do you two realize you are far louder than you think you are?"

Swiftly stepping in front of Andrew, Bastila apologized. "We are sorry for disturbing you, but I was just in the middle of telling Andrew that he is being selfish by not putting you and your baby first and making sure you have a nice safe place to deliver."

Andrew began to become angry at Bastila for what she was accusing him of. "I never said we couldn't! Of course I care about my wife's safety, but we can't just drop what were doing. If we take a sudden detour away from the mission we may lose what little we have of Revan's trail."

Brianna went over to Andrew and gave him a one-armed hug around his waist to calm him down. "Sweetheart you don't have to pretend anymore I'll take it from here." Andrew's facial expression then returned back to a look of relief. He returned Brianna's hug, kissed her on the top of her head, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. There was a mutual agreeing nod between the two of them before Brianna spoke up again. "Listen Bastila, I was the one who said we needed to keep traveling. Andrew was completely innocent in all of this. In all honesty he wanted to stop at the nearest planet the second he found out I was pregnant, but I wouldn't let him."

Bastila was in bewilderment, for a few moments she didn't know what she should say "Why Brianna? Why did you wish to continue on? You had every right to stop this journey whenever you wanted. What was preventing you from doing so?"

"Well first off no matter how much I try to ignore it the Echani blood that runs through my veins won't let me abandon a mission, regardless of what the circumstances are. Secondly I hoped that if we just pushed a little further we might find Revan before I became full term. Obviously that didn't happen, so with deep regret I have no choice but to request we put our mission on hold until after I have given birth."

"We're deeply sorry Bastila" Andrew spoke up again. "But listen I stand by what I said before. I meant it when I said I'm not giving up. It may sound cliché but I will find Revan if it's the last thing I do."

A small tear crawled down Bastila's face and she smiled. "Thank you very much Andrew. I appreciate you saying that, but please don't worry. It's been over five years since I've seen Revan. I think I can manage waiting a little while longer.'

"It's settled than, I'll speak with Atton in the morning. Come on Brianna, let's go back to bed." Both Andrew and Brianna made their way back to the cargo hold, which they had renovated into a fully functional bedroom for their own personal use.

Slowly slipping back into bed Andrew was about to lay his head down and drift asleep, until Brianna nudged him in the shoulder and signaled that she wasn't done speaking with him yet. "Tell me what happened Andrew."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He said while crossing his arms in front of his eyes to emphasize that he wanted to go back to sleep.

"Please don't." Brianna sat down on the bed next to Andrew and pulled his arms away from his face. "I need you to look at me when I talk to you, that way I know your listening. Now, I doubt you woke up to specifically argue with Bastila about my pregnancy. So I want you to answer me honestly; it was the dream again wasn't it?"

Andrew chuckled to himself, sat upright in the bed, and looked right into Brianna's eyes. "I love how you and Bastila both assume it was about that."

The expression on Brianna's face turned to annoyance and a challenging disbelief. "Was it not?"

Andrew no longer felt the desire to tease and joke with his wife, especially considering the fact she could see right through him and could tell when he was hiding something. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Yea it was, same one as last night. The dark figure attacked me, we fought, and then he almost killed me before I woke up."

The concerned look that Bastila had earlier was now present on Brianna. "This is beginning to become worrisome. Did you tell Bastila who you think the dark figure is?"

"No, as far as she knows I'm completely clueless and uncaring to the meaning behind my dreams." Brianna then shot Andrew a shocked glance, and he quickly composed himself so he could explain. "I'm afraid of what might happen if I tell her the truth; she may not take the news very well."

"Andrew she needs to know. She needs to know that you suspect Revan of being the dark figure." Andrew hung his head in shame from hearing his own contemplated thoughts repeated back at him. "I realize that it might upset her, but this cannot be helped. Your dreams are getting worse and more fluid the closer we get to finding him."

At this Andrew shot up off the bed and stood right in front of his wife with irritation in his voice. "You think I don't know that. Every night for the last month I've woken up in a cold sweat because of these dreams, but what do you suggest we do Brianna; after you have the baby we just stop looking? We can't just..." Suddenly Andrew forced himself to bite his tongue because he realized he was starting to lose his cool and he didn't want to say something he would later regret. So he took a deep breath and sat back down on the bed next to Brianna and apologized. "I'm sorry Bri, I need to be more mindful of myself. Outbursts like that are stepping-stones to the dark side. You don't deserve to be on the receiving end of my frustrations."

Brianna simply smiled and kissed him on cheek. "Andrew I know you love me and would never do anything that would intentionally hurt me. Right now you're just tired and confused about what you know you need to do."

Taking another deep breath and exhaling Andrew said "Listen, Bastila is one of my closest friends, one of the few I still have from my childhood. I made a promise to get her husband back. I can't back out now just because my life may be in danger."

Grabbing both his hands, Brianna looked deep into Andrew's eyes. "You may think you're doing the right thing, but there is no honor in marching towards your own death, especially when you now have a family to take care of and look after. I assure you, Bastila will understand everything if you just take the time to sit down and explain it to her."

"Alright fine, if you think that's what's best." Andrew finally concedes. "We will tell her everything, but only after you've had the baby." Brianna revealed a triumphant grin before climbing into bed with her husband. Andrew stared at her with awe and chuckled at how accomplished she seemed to be acting. with an irritated grin on his face he asked "Why do you always get to win the arguments?"

As she pulled the covers over herself she looked back at him and said with a devilish smirk "Because sweetheart, I'm always right."

...End of Ch 1...


	2. Journey Postponed

Disclaimer- I do not own the rights to Star Wars Kotor 1 and 2 or their characters and likeness.

Ch 2

A loud crash was heard clear across the hall once again waking Andrew. Without hesitation he quickly jumped out of his the bed, called his lightsaber to him from inside the Jedi robes across the room, and dashed out the doorway to investigate the strange noise. When he reached the main hold he instinctively activated his lightsaber and jumped in ready for combat. It was only when he noticed some of his fellow crew members staring in awe at him, that he realized there was no threat.

"Well looks like someone is itching for a fight" said the fiery haired smart-mouth Mira who was mocking Andrew from the couch . "What's the matter, frustrated that you can't get intimate with Brianna because of the pregnancy."

Deactivating his lightsaber Andrew sarcastically responded "Haha very funny Mira, and if I may add extremely crude. I heard a loud crash, so I came to investigate."

"That would be my bad general" Bao-Dur spoke up from the other side of the room by the control panels. "I was in the middle of working on our little T3 unit trying to install some upgraded shields into his tiny frame when some sparks shot out of his motivator and hit my non-mechanical hand. It caught me off guard and made me accidentally drop my tools. I'm sorry that my carelessness disturbed your sleep."

Letting out a small exhale, Andrew collapsed on the couch next to Mira. "No it's alright Bao-Dur, honestly I'm just glad I didn't have to decapitate anyone before breakfast."

"Mommy what does decapitate mean?" asked young five-year old Vaner, who was sitting on the floor playing with his toy starship,"

"Ugh it means to yell at someone so much that it feels like there head is going to fall off." his loving mother Bastila carefully covered up. She then shot Andrew an angry look for putting her in the awkward position of having to answer her son's off-putting question.

"I don't think I'm wrong in saying that we are all thankful you didn't have decapitate anyone sweetheart." Brianna had followed behind Andrew and had now entered the room wearing a deeply amused grin. "The last thing we want to do right now is have to sit and listen to one of your long drawn out lectures."

At that moment Vaner jumped to his feet, ran directly to Brianna, and started tugging on her nightgown. "Aunt Bria...Aunt Bria, come play starfighter with me."

Bastila swiftly got to her feet also and grabbed her son away from Brianna. "Vaner, Aunt Bria is not going to want to play right now." Confusion quickly took over the boy as he stared at his mother in disbelief. "Listen the baby she's carrying has taken a lot of energy out of her lately, which has also been making her incapable of doing certain things. It's not that she doesn't want to play, it's just she's too tired to. Do you understand?" With disappointment in his eyes, Vaner slowly nodded. "Good, so what do you say we leave her be for now ok."

However, before Bastila could walk away Brianna placed a hand on the top of her shoulder and said "You underestimate me Bastila. It doesn't matter how pregnant I am, I'm more than capable of playing a simple game with Vaner." Brianna then peered down at the little boy and gave him a reassuring smile. Vaner cheered up right away and turned to his mother to make sure she approved.

Bastila's doubt was still evident by the way she looked at Brianna. "Are you sure? I wouldn't blame you if you didn't feel up for it."

"Bastila it's not like I'm gearing up for battle. I don't know how it was like when you were pregnant, but I don't think swooshing around toy figurines is going to be the most strenuous thing on my body. Thought I will admit I probably shouldn't be on my feet for too long, so as long as I sit on the coach while we do it I should be fine."

Andrew immediately jumped up and moved his wife to where he was previously sitting. "Here you go dear take a seat."

Before sitting down Brianna planted a quick kiss on Andrew's cheek. "I appreciate your chivalry, but sweetheart there are three seats. You don't have to sacrifice your spot on my account. Mira and I wouldn't mind you sitting with us." Mira then padded the middle seat with her hand and gestured for him to come back over

Waving both the women off Andrew said. "It's alright I needed to go talk to Atton and Carth anyway, which I would hazard to guess are off playing pilot somewhere." He then walked out of the room and down the corridor to go look for the two men, and as Andrew entered the cockpit he saw both men sitting on either side of each other in the pilot seats. "How are we looking so far."

Not even looking around Atton answered "We've passed a couple of dwarf planets in the last hour, but none of them were capable of sustaining life. So the likelihood of our man being on one of them is pretty low."

This news did not relieve any of Andrew's anxieties. "Well that's discouraging." There was not much of a chance of them finding something by now, but Andrew felt he should at least ask one more time. "Speaking of low, how are we doing on fuel Admiral"

Carth looked at one of the consoles beside him and said. "Our supplies are manageable for now but soon we're going to need to stop and refuel on a nearby planet."

"Hmmm, how about we make course for one right now. Atton what's the nearest colonized planet."

Atton got up from his chair and made his way over to the navicomputer. "Ugh the closest one to our current position is Manaan, it's a planet completely covered in water excluding a floating capital called Ahto City. It would take us around 9 hours to get there."

"That sounds reasonable enough to me. Set in the coördinates and put us into hyperspace, and once you've done that I want the two of you to meet me back in the main hold. There is something I need to discuss with all of you." Andrew returned to the main hold and grinned when he saw Vaner smiling and laughing while Brianna levitated the toy starship around the room making swooshing noises. He thought he should probably say something to his wife about using the force in such a way, but then he remembered the comment she made about not wanting to hear another lecture and decided he would to talk to her about it later in private. Instead he walked over to the center holoprojector and started entering in coördinates.

"What are you doing general" inquisitively asked Bao-Dur who was still working on Teethree.

"I'm trying to get ahold of Visas on Coruscant." answered Andrew now measuring the configuration of his signal. "I want her to be present for this announcement."

"And what exactly is this announcement again" asked Atton who had just entered the main hold alongside Carth.

"All will be made clear in just a moment." Suddenly a small blue figure of a young woman wearing a veil over her face appeared on the holoprojector. "Hello Visas thank you for answering my call."

"It was of no issue. Tell me, have you found Revan yet?" Bastila slightly shuddered at the question, and remained silent so Andrew could answer it.

"Sadly we have not, and it seems we have run out of time. Brianna is thirty-five weeks pregnant and it will be unsafe for her to be traveling for the next few weeks. Which is why we are setting course for Manaan. I thought I should tell all of you this because I predict we are going to be there for a while."

"What about our search for Revan" asked Carth surprised at the sudden change in plans.

"For now we're going to have to postpone our journey until after Brianna has given birth. From there we can plan our next course of action."

"Why Manaan" asked Mira.

"Well the main reason is because it's the closest, but more importantly than that the planet's capital, Ahoto City, enforces, some security measures that are quite extensive. I figure that makes it the ideal environment to keep Brianna and the baby safe."

Carth stepped forward in front of everyone. "Is there no way for us to leave you two on Manaan while the rest of us continue on with the search?"

Before Andrew could respond Bastila spoke up. "We could do that, but frankly I don't think we should. Andrew and Brianna are our friends and we need to be there for them in a time like this." Her voice then softened as she moved over to him. "Carth you know I want to find him just as much if not more than you do, and the thought of never seeing him again kills me inside. However, sometimes things come up that takes precedence over other goals. Andrew and I have already discussed this and we both mutually agree that Brianna's well-being has higher priority at this time. We're not giving up on him Carth, we just need to be patient that's all."

"Whatever, I'm going back to the cockpit." Carth then turned around and stormed out of the room,

Andrew was about to say something to stop him, however, Bastila came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Leave him be for now. Carth will settle down eventually and soon everything will be alright." Andrew wished he could reassure the republic admiral, but there was not much that could be done or said. For now he will just have to accept Carth's feelings and move on.

Suddenly the blue hologram of Visas spoke out again. "I don't mean to interrupt and I do appreciate you keeping me informed of your affairs, but I am curious on why you chose to tell me now. You could have just as easily contacted me once you arrived."

"Well Visas whether you're traveling with us or not you are a still a major part of this group, and I felt you deserved to hear our plans at the same time as everyone else. Once a friend always a friend."

A small grin appeared across Visas's face. "Thank you for your kind words they are very humbling, however, if you don't have anything else for me I must be going. I have recently brought in some new prospects to the Jedi temple. Hopefully they're truly force-sensitive and we will be able to start rebuilding the order."

"Don't give up Visas, we will find more lost Jedi" Andrew reassured her. "We simply need to stay vigilant and patient, I have a feeling that eventually they will start coming to us and we won't have to seek them out."

"We can only hope. Farewell for now my friends." The rest of the crew said their goodbyes, and then the blue hologram of the young woman disappeared.

"Alright getting back to the issue at hand, as most of you probably know Manaan's native species, the Selkath, carry a no violence policy within their capital. Which means we have to be on our best behavior and avoid stirring up trouble. Because of this I recommend we not dress in our robes and we keep our lightsabers hidden away from plain sight. People are still quite angry with the Jedi about the war, and we don't want to open up old wounds for any veterans or refuges that may be there. So are there any questions?" None of the crew gave any objections to Andrew's explanation. "Good we should be arriving in a few hours,"

Most of the crew left the main hold and went to their respective areas of the ship, except for Brianna who was still lounging on the couch and Atton who looked eager to speak. "Hey Andrew do you mind if I talk to you for minute." He happily obliged and signaled for Atton to go on. "Well I was wondering if you'd be willing to promote me to knight."

Andrew suspected that would be the request, however, he gave no sign of agreement. "I'm sorry Atton but I don't believe you're entirely ready yet."

"You've already knighted everyone else, when will I be ready?"

"Once you have faced and passed all the necessary trials, then you'll be ready." Brianna said from the coach. She would have given a little more input if she didn't notice Andrew shooting her a no help needed glance.

"She's right, the reason everyone else advanced ahead of you is because they had experienced certain things in their lives that symbolized the trials. When the opportunity arises for you I'm sure you'll be more than up to the challenge."

"Well what trials have I yet to pass.?"

"I can't tell you that Atton. What benefit would it be if I told you what you're supposed to learn? This is one lesson you're going to have to figure out on your own. Now why don't you go back to the cockpit and meditate on your thoughts."

Atton did not seem satisfied by that explanation, however, he knew it would be best not to argue. "Alright I will. Thank you for hearing me." He then went off to do what was suggested of him.

Now the only ones left were Andrew and his wife, and she was glowing with happiness "I can't believe we're doing this. I can't believe you and me are actually going to have our own little family."

Chuckling at the statement sat down next to Brianna and put his arm around her. "Do you not consider our friends as family?"

"Well yes but not the same kind of family that I'm talking about. For so long all you and me have concerned ourselves with is battle, betrayal, and war. Now we get to do something positive for once. Instead of taking life we're about to give it. I am so overjoyed with myself I can hardly contain my smile. Andrew don't you see we're..."

"Going to be parents" Andrew finished smiling ear to ear. "This will be the biggest adventure we've ever been on. I predict it will be very scary and difficult."

Brianna snuggled closer to him and closed her eyes. "As long as we remember our promise to each other we'll be fine."

"Yea I completely agree, and what was that promise again" He offhandedly jokes

He was then met with a backhand to his bicep and Brianna replying "That no matter what obstacles, challenges, or enemies we face we will always stand together."

At that moment Andrew brushed the white hair away from Brianna's eyes and took her hand into his. "Do you love me?"

Without hesitation she responded "Always and forever."

"Than trust in me, that everything will be alright." The two of them then smiled at each other with deep compassion and love before leaning into one another and sharing a soft kiss.

Suddenly Vaner comes running back into the room with toy starship in tow."Aunt Bria Uncle Andrew, do you want to finish playing?"

Andrew rubs the top of the little boy's head and says " We would love to."

He then takes the toy and starts making zooming and zapping noises with it, while Brianna stares at him and thinks to herself "_He is going to be a great father."_

...End of Ch 2...


	3. The Value In A Name

Disclaimer- I do not own the rights to Star Wars Kotor 1 and 2 or their characters and likeness.

Author's Notes- I know it took awhile for the next part of the story to come out. It was a combination of writer's block and my personal life not giving me a lot of opportunities to work on it, but hopefully this extra long chapter will make it up to you guys. Enjoy.

Ch 3

Alone in his and Brianna's room, Andrew twisted and turned on his feet cutting at the air with open palms. "From the first movement flows the second; strike, repeat, circle one's opponent, and look for an opening. Left jab to opponent's face to disorient them, roundhouse to their midsection to take their breath away, and then finish them off with a right haymaker."

Suddenly the door opened and Bao-Dur came in. "General we've arrived on Manaan. everyone is ready and waiting for you."

Andrew grabbed a towel that was lying on top of his bed and wiped the sweat from his face. "Good let me just change into some fresh clothes."

"General if you don't mind I think I'd like to stay on the ship while were here. I have some repairs to do, and frankly I feel like someone needs to stay behind and look after the old girl."

"If that is what you wish." Andrew then made his way to the exit ramp, everyone was already there. "Alright I'll say this once again. If anyone asks, we are simply travelers who are wanting to experience the beauty of Manaan, and if that's not enough maybe a little force persuasion will do the trick."

"Why do we have to be so secretive and hide our identities?" Asked Atton while straightening his civilian tunic, which they all had to wear.

"Even though we are trying to rebuild the order, there are still some people who don't take too kindly to Jedi. That especially includes Manaan; to its officials we are nothing more than violent warmongers who enjoy watching others suffer."

"That is ridiculous" Mira bursted out. "The Jedi stand for peace and the preservation of life."

"The Selkath would argue otherwise, but come on let's not wait any longer. We can divulge in the politics of the galaxy at a later time."

As soon as the exit ramp started to open, each of the crew members was instantly hit with the smell of salty waters and the feel of an oceanic breeze on their face. Most of them were unscaved by it, except for Mira who scrunched up her face in discomfort. She had grown used to the feel of tranquil planets, however she still felt uneasy when she was on them. "I predict this will not be a pleasant few weeks for me."

Once everyone got off the ship, a slender protocol droid approached them. "Welcome to Ahto City, my name is IC-78. What is your business here today on Manaan?

"We're visiting, my wife is eight months pregnant and we need a place to stay for a few weeks."

"I see. What about the group of individuals accompanying you?"

Andrew took a brief pause to think of his next response. " Oh...ugh... they're relatives of me and my wife. They all traveled far across the galaxy to come see this happy occasion."

"I'm from Tatooine." Little Vaner had pushed himself to the front of the group and started speaking directly to the droid. "It's a sand planet, so we don't have much water there." Bastila made an attempt to grab him, however, Andrew stretched his arm out to stop her. At first she questioned it, but then she realized that Andrew was trying to tell her that it would be ok. If it was anyone else, she would have snatched her son right up without a moment's hesitation, but this was Andrew. He was practically family, she knew he cared about Vaner and would never let anything bad happen to him. She trusted him. Vaner then moved even closer to the droid and said "Tatooine has two suns and three moons. How many do you have?"

IC-78 stared down at the child for a moment and quickly responded. "The planet of Manaan has one sun, however, it currently does not have any moon in orbit."

"Ahh, I'm sorry. Maybe one day you'll get a moon." IC-78 did not answer back, he simply continued to stare down at Vaner. "My Aunt Brianna is going to have a baby and I'm going to be a cousin." No one noticed, but Andrew let a small smirk slip across his face at that last comment.

"I see." IC-78 looked back and forth amongst the group taking a moment to analyze all the information that was given to him. "Very well, I shall refer you to our nearest medical center and have rooms made available for all of you. I can take you to them now if you like."

Atton grabbed Andrew's shoulder before they started moving and whispered in his ear. "Why don't you guys go ahead, Mira and I want to look around before getting settled in."

"That's fine, we'll contact you two later with what room you're in."

The remaining members of the group followed the droid as it lead them to their respective rooms. They walked down a corridor that had an open balcony view of the vast ocean on Manaan. Each of them was mesmerized by the beauty. On their way Andrew noticed that Carth was slouching, kind of trudging along, and hadn't said a word to anyone in the last few hours. "_Carth must still be pretty irritated about being here on Manaan, and I completely understand why. He probably thinks we're giving up, that we're going against our promise, and that we're turning our backs on him and Revan. I wish there was a way I could show him that it's not like that at all, to make him see that Brianna and I are doing all that we can."_

"_Maybe if you talked to him you could get him to understand_." Andrew was startled to hear a foreign voice in his head, but strangely it sounded familiar to him. He looked around and saw his wife Brianna gleaming at him with a mischievous grin. "_Sorry but I couldn't help but overhear some of your surface thoughts about Carth. You really do need to speak with him. Regardless of what Bastila says he needs some sort of reassurance."_

"This is the first room." IC-71 had stopped in front of them and motioned to a door on his left.

Bastila stepped forward with Vaner holding her hand. "I hope you don't mind but I think me, Vaner, and Mira will take this one." There were no objections and she and Vaner waved goodbye as the remaining three continued on with the droid guiding them.

Brianna had moved closer to Andrew and started poking him in the back. "Ugh, Carth I think we need to talk."

"No we don't." Carth shot back almost like he was expecting Andrew to say something. "We're already here there is nothing that can be done about it now."

"Regardless I feel like we need to clear the air, because I think the last thing either of us would want is for one to be mad at the other."

Carth pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a deep sigh. "Listen I'm not upset with you, and I'm especially not upset with you Brianna. It's just I'm really frustrated with this situation. I want to continue on and keep searching, but I know that's not possible. For now I'm just going to put my personal feelings aside. I may not like it but I'll go along and do what I need to do." Both Andrew and Brianna wanted to say something, but neither of them could come up with the words. Then surprisingly to the two of them, a small smirk broke across the Republic Admiral's face. "Besides there's a small part of me that would kick itself if I wasn't here to see that baby get born."

IC-71 had stopped once again. "This is the next room."

Without missing a beat Carth motioned to the door and said "I'll take this one, I'm going to shoot Atton a message on the comlink and tell him which room we're sharing. Thank you for your concern, but this is something I need to take time to get over." He walked in and the door to the apartment room shut behind him leaving Andrew and Brianna still speechless.

The protocol droid started to walk to the next destination, however, he was instantly halted when Andrew put his hand on IC-78's shoulder and asked "What's our room number?"

"531."

"I think we can find it from here, you may go back and fulfill your normal duties." With that IC-78 left the couple as they walked forward without him.

"So what do you think?"

"About what?"

"Do you think Carth really is ok with this, or do you think he simply said all of that so we wouldn't bother him about it again."

"I don't know Bria. I pride myself on my keen insight, but there is something about Carth that makes it difficult for me to read him. He's obviously conflicted about what he wants to do and what he needs to do."

Brianna hooked her arm around Andrew's and pulled herself close into him. "Sweetheart, I sense there's a lot of frustration in you as well. You shouldn't beat yourself up about this,"

Andrew then stopped in place, turned to Brianna, and put his hands on her enlarged stomach. "I am sorry dear, please don't think that I'm feeling guilty about us having a child. That is sure to be one of the greatest moments of my life when I finally get to hold them in my arms."

She giggled and gave him a quick peck on the lips "I never thought anything of the sort. By the way that reminds me, we have still yet to pick out a name. What do you think it should be?"

"Well if it's a boy I refuse to name him after myself. Growing up in the Jedi temple on Dantooine the other kids would harass me everyday because of my name. Bastila was my only friend and the only one who wouldn't tease me. She would always say to the others that the quality of a Jedi shouldn't be measured by the sound of their name." Andrew then paused realizing that he just disproved his own argument. "Regardless, just to be safe I'd still like to take precautions and pick out something that sounds normal like Ronan or Matlous."

With a sly grin still on her face, Brianna said "I see, but tell me what are some ideas you have if it's a girl?"

After a brief awkward silence, Andrew chuckled to himself and rubbed the back of his neck. "I have no clue. I guess I haven't given much thought to that possibility."

"Well lucky for you neither have I." Brianna's voice then became calmer and she turned to look out at the sun that was now setting against Manaan's endless sea. "Up until two years ago I didn't see the value in a name, but you changed my viewpoint fairly quickly. Now I can't imagine myself as anything other than Brianna, the daughter of two war heroes and the wife of the kindest man in galaxy." Out of reflex the young woman then flung her arms around him and kissed him with nothing but utter passion. When she finally broke the kiss she laid her head against Andrew's chest and grinned. "Sadly, my creativity for coming up with names is a little lacking. So it seems we'll just have to wait until the day he or she arrives to make a decision."

Holding Brianna in his arms, Andrew couldn't help but admire the beauty of his wife. Even though he knew how exhausted the pregnancy has made her, she still retained the same radiance as the day he met her. Of course he also knew that the reason for this was that her force enlightenment power kept her stamina and physical condition above the normal degree. However, that didn't make her look any less strong for going through this. "Hey dear why don't you go find Atton and Mira and see what they're doing. I'll get things set up here and join you shortly."

She stared back up at him with a confused look on her face. "Are you sure?"

"Yea I'll be fine, let me do the good husband thing and unpack everything. Ok?"

"Alright, we'll wait for you and then we can experience all the luxury's Manaan has to offer."

With a farewell kiss Brianna was off and disappeared when she went around the corner of the corridor. Andrew took one last look at the beautiful ocean view in front of him before turning to his and Brianna's temporary apartment room. Just as he was about to push the button to open the door an image of a hooded figure flashed in front of his eyes. He stumbled backwards slightly from surprise, then suddenly a sharp ringing noise entered Andrew's ears and sent him careening to his knees. Faint words almost like foggy whispers ran through his mind. "You think you can run from me. You can't hide. I will make you bleed." Andrew raised his hand up and used the force to activate the opening mechanism on the door and crawled through it. Once he did the voices in his head all at once stopped. He quickly stood up and closed the door behind him. This all happened in under a minute, yet Andrew's entire face was completely soaked in sweat. He put his forehead against the wall letting the cold metal framing cool him down.

"You must be quite conflicted Exile."

Andrew spun around instantly drawing his lightsaber from the hidden strap in his sleeve. "Who's there?" The cyan glow of his blade illuminated a great portion of the dark, and as he cautiously moved closer to the source of the voice he caught view of a person he never thought he'd see again. "Kreia?" In front of the bewildered man stood the figure of his late master. There were no scars upon her body, she even had both her hands, the only strange thing about her appearance was that there was a blue aura surrounding her entire frame. "What are you doing here? I...I thought you were..."

"Dead. If you are referring to how my physical being is no longer apart of this world than you would be correct. However, it seems to be that the force in all its greatness and endless wonder has granted me the ability to communicate beyond the spiritual plane. Another one of its cruel curses upon me I suppose. You can lower your weapon, you have no need to fear me. I cannot issue harm even if I wanted to."

Deactivating his lightsaber Andrew sat down on the edge of the bed that was in the room. "Than why are you here?"

"I sensed a great darkness around you, it draws its strength from somewhere unknown but somehow it also felt familiar to me. I concluded that if I couldn't see this entity clearly, than you must be completely blind to what is happening. I realize that because of our past you may find it hard to trust me, however, let me assure you by saying that I'm here to help guide you through this fog. You were one of my greatest treasures and I will not let all the hard work I put into you go to waste."

Andrew slipped out a small chuckle. "I knew it, killing the force was never your true intention. You only wanted to provide me with a reason to stop you. Our entire journey together was so you could train me and show me how I could destroy the Sith Triumvirate."

"So that is the name the annals of history will remember us as." Kreia quietly whispered to herself. She then raised her voice once again so that Andrew may hear. "Yes it's true I wanted you to kill us, all of us, but not only that. I wanted you to become as powerful as possible. Of course it was not without a few obstacles standing in your way. Speaking of which, how is the former servant of Atris?"

Shaking his head at the question Andrew answered back. "Kreia, though I appreciate you being civil with me, I wish you wouldn't talk about my wife that way. She was anything but an obstacle in my way."

"You married her?" Kreia was genuinely surprised by this and took a second to plan out her next words. "I suppose I could have chosen a better word to describe her, but regardless she is still the reason you are not at your full potential."

"What do you mean my full potential?"

"You know exactly what I mean. You had unlimited power within your grasp, you literally could feel all life around you. Instead of being denied the force, like you had been in the past, you virtually became the force incarnate. Yet only mere hours later after receiving such a gift, you split it in half and gave it to your soon to be lover. Also before you give me an angry retort, I realize it was to save her life. I just wish you could have had more time to push your limits. Maybe if you still had the full access to that power, you could find where this dark presence is emanating from."

After all of what Kreia said the only thing Andrew could do was sigh. "Why does she upset you so much?"

"The Echani? I just told you why. It's that not that I hate her, I simply find it irritating seeing her hold you back."

"Well to me it seems like it's more than that. Anytime I talked about her to you there would always be a certain look on your face, but I couldn't tell if it was of disgust or sorrow. I normally assumed it was the prior because you never seemed to get sad about anything, but now I'm not so sure. She has some sort of effect on you and I want to know why."

Kreia turned her back to Andrew and lowered her head. "Are the two of you happy together?"

Without flinching Andrew responded "Yes very much so, we're about to have our first child."

"She's with child? Things really do come full circle. Listen to me exile, I will tell you the story of my full relationship and involvement with your wife as long as you don't repeat it to her." Andrew nodded and Kreia continued. "You are already aware that I was once Revan's master, but what you probably don't know is that I served beside him in the Mandalorian Wars. He offered me the opportunity to fight alongside him after I had been exiled from the order. Now I never went into detail with you about this before because I felt you didn't need know, however, the reasoning for my banishment was that I fell in love." At that moment Andrew's eyes opened up wide and he listened in more intently. "I fell in love with a man and I kept it secret for over ten years, and in that time the two of us shared a child." Andrew's jaw started to drop as the realization set in. Kreia turned around and pulled the hood on her cloak down so that she may look at him face to face. "My name is Arren Kreia Kae, former master historian of the Jedi order and mother to Brianna Kae the Echani Jedi Knight ."

Andrew began to grin as his mind finished putting all the pieces and connections to this story together. "It all makes sense." Then his expression became serious as he thought back to her request from earlier. "There is no way I can keep this secret, Brianna has to know."

"No she does not! To that girl her mother was a hero and someone she aspires to be like. I will not let her image of me be tainted by the latter half of my life."

"Kreia I tell her everything. I love her too much to ever lie to her."

That last statement surprised Kreia and made her pause for a moment. She then started to smile, something Andrew had hardly ever seen her do. "I now understand why she cares for you so much. You are so much like Yusanis, he always put me above everything else." Kreia lifted her hood back over face and it returned to its normal cynical look. "Do not lie to her, tell her that you spoke with me today. All that I ask is that you withhold that vital information for now. That is a confession she has to hear from me when the time is right. I must go now. It takes a lot of energy to project myself like this, and I can only do it for so long. We will speak more on our enemy later, until then enjoy the time you have with your companions." Kreia then slowly faded way, leaving Andrew to sit and ponder about all that had just transpired and his new-found information about the one he loved.

...End of Ch 3...

Author's Post Notes- There you go guys. I hoped you liked the chapter. Hopefully from now on I can be more involved with the story and come out with chapters sooner. In the meantime why don't you guys tell me what you think the baby is going to be. Is it a boy or a girl, and what should their name be. I already have an idea of what I want, but I'm curious to see what you guys think. Until next time bear with me.


	4. The Joy Of Yesterday

Disclaimer- I do not own the rights to Star Wars Kotor 1 and 2 or their characters and likeness.

Ch 4

A cold chill ran down his spine as Andrew blinked his eyes open, looked around, and instantly realized that he was once again standing in the dark plane that recently had enveloped his nightmares. It was almost the same never-ending emptiness that he experienced previously, except this time in the distance he could see a grey structure of some kind. Unclipping the lightsaber attached to his belt, Andrew slowly moved towards it. As he got closer he discovered that the formation was a giant stone bridge. Andrew got right up close to the structure and as he put his hand on the side face of the bridge to feel the smoothness of its surface he started to think to himself. "This is strange. I've never seen this bridge in my dreams before, but yet somehow it seems familiar to me." Suddenly Andrew heard the static of a lightsaber being activated above him. He quickly jumped backwards prepared to fight, however, what he saw turned his heart to ice and froze him in place. On top of the bridge was the dark hooded figure that Andrew had now grown accustomed to seeing, but on the other side of him was his wife. They were in a heated duel between each other and Brianna was losing. All of her combat techniques and maneuvers were noticeably slower than normal, due to her enlarged stomach impairing her movement. She tried slashing and swinging at every opening she thought she had, but each strike was parried back at her with ease. Andrew clenched his fist around his lightsaber feeling a deep rage fill up inside of him. "He's just toying with her" he thought to himself. "I need to help her." However, just as Andrew was about to run forward his legs locked up. Just like last time he could not move and was forced to stand there and watch. Brianna fought to keep her guard up, but in the end it was to no avail. The figure deflected one of her blows to the side and took the opportunity to cut the top part of her lightsaber hilt off its frame. The young soon to be mother was now defenseless. Without missing a beat the dark figure grabbed her by the arm, pulled her in, and wrapped his own arm around her neck so she couldn't get away. Andrew's heart was no longer frozen with fear, but now beating wildly with anxiety. Within Brianna's eyes was a fear that Andrew had never witnessed before, he wanted so badly to come to her aid, but alas there was nothing he could do and he knew the inevitable was soon to come. The figure turned so both it and Brianna could face downwards to look at him, and then spoke out with a raspy tone almost mimicking the sound of a wandering spirit. "You brought this on yourself exile. Your arrogance will be your downfall, and in the end you'll only have yourself to blame."

"Who are you , what have I done to you to warrant such threats of wrath?"

"Ones that so readily dismiss their actions in the past, are sure to have a destructive future." "I find it humorous that a man with so much power, still does not have the strength to the save the ones he loves." The figure then arched his saber and jammed it right through Brianna's back.

"NOOOOOOO!" Andrew shot up in bed drenched in sweat and heavily panting.

Suddenly he felt cool sleek arms wrap around his neck and a calm whisper in his ear. "Shhhh, sweetheart it's ok...it's ok, it was just a dream. You're here now with me." Andrew pulled away and looked into the concerned eyes of the woman he loved so dearly. Brianna was alright. He quickly linked his arms around her once again and held her as close to him as could. He needed to feel her warmth make sure fully and completely that he was truly back in reality. Brianna didn't move much, she simply rubbed her hand on his back in a circular motion and continued to talk to him softly and sweetly to soothe him. "Do you want to tell me what happened this time in your dream, it might make you feel better." Andrew didn't respond, he gave a slight shutter which made Brianna break their embrace and look at him with even more concern. "Andrew what are you not telling me? Please sweetheart let me be here for you, remember you and me stand side by side against all obstacles."

"You died." Andrew shakily breathed. "You were fighting...fighting the dark figure, but he was too strong for you. He killed you right in front of my eyes."

Brianna's eyes widened and she placed both her hands on his cheeks so that he could focus on her. "Hey look at me. I'm fine, the baby is fine. No matter how bad your dreams seem, they can't harm us."

"I'm not so sure." There was a slight pause between them. "Bastila was right these are not dreams, they're visions. At first I thought this dark entity was simply toying with my mind, but now I see that it legitimately wants to see me suffer. It is threatening you, because it knows it will get to me."

"I'm sorry that your going through this. I wish there was a way that we could figure out this thing's identity, then we could deal with it properly and you wouldn't have to have this darkness looming over your head all the time."

Andrew sat quietly for a few moments thinking on this, and then his eyes widened in realization. "Maybe there is a way."

"What do you mean" Brianna asked slightly confused.

"Our force enlightenment power, that is the key. When I talked to Kreia earlier today, she said before I split my power in half the force and I were virtually one and the same. I believe if we use the full extent of that power we can hone in on where this dark figure is emulating from. Maybe if we're lucky we'll also find out what his, her, or its identity is.

"That sounds great, but how do you plan on doing that. You said it yourself this power has been split in half between the two of us."

A small chuckle escaped Andrew's lips as a small grin returned to his face. "Simple, we're going to put it back together again. Take my hand." Brianna hesitated at first, but then quickly complied. "Now I want you focus and put all of your energy and being into me, and I will do the same to you. Let us close our eyes and think only of sharing one another's power, put everything else out of mind and calm all our senses until the only thing we can hear or feel is the sound of each other's voice. Until at last we become one." Everything blurred around them as their two souls united and their minds traveled back into a not so decent memory.

A small room almost as big as the garage on the Ebon Hawk started to appear through the haze , and in the center of it was a younger short-haired version of Brianna pacing in front of a tall mirror wearing a flowing white dress. Mira was sitting in the corner of the room wearing a modestly covered yellow dress watching her friend go back and forth, and Bastila was in a similar looking yellow dress trying to calm Brianna down. "Can you please stop marching up and down the room, you're starting to make me nervous."

"I'm sorry I can't help it, whenever I stand still I start shaking uncontrollably and my knees get weak. I mean this is all happening so fast, a few months ago I never thought I'd leave the surface of Telos let alone get married to the love of my love on such a beautiful planet as Dantooine in the old Jedi enclave. We only got engaged two weeks ago, are we really ready? Should we not wait a little longer to allow our love for each other to grow."

"Do you believe love stops developing once two people are marked as husband and wife?" Visas had entered the room and she was wearing her usual burgundy shaded robes. She moved swiftly towards Brianna and stood right in front of her. "In the last month both of you have put yourselves in harm's way and nearly died for each other, and in each case one of you was there to save the other."

"Andrew has always cared about you Brianna" Mira spoke up. "You were the first one of us he decided to train in the ways of the force. I wouldn't be surprised if he did that just so he could get closer to you."

Bastila stepped forward in front of Brianna and said "I don't believe it's far-fetched to say that Andrew views me as a sister. So if you ask me, him taking you to Tatooine was his way of bringing a girl home to see the family."

Visas smirked at the other girls remarks, but she still did not feel like the point had gotten across yet. "It is quite evident that he loves you sister of the Echani, but if you are still having doubts about what you feel for him, than you should probably not get married at all."

At that last statement Brianna's nervousness turned into a scornful stare at Visas "Visas I may be suffering with cold feet, but don't you dare misinterpret that as me not loving him. You pretty much said it yourself, I would gladly die for that man if I had to, he is my life's purpose."

"Hmmm is that so, than what are you waiting for? Go on, marry him and prove that your feelings are true." Before Brianna could respond to Visas's statement the comm link on the young Miraluka's belt started to buzz and beep. She glanced at the screen for a moment and turned back to the other women in the room. "Sadly I must leave you all for the time being, our young bride's fiancé has summoned me."

"Well speak of the devil." Mira laughed through words. " That's alright, I think you did a good enough job breaking Brianna's pre-wedding jitters."

Visas gave a small simple grin. "I'm glad I could be of some service on this happy occasion." Brianna shot her a puzzled look. "Yes sister of the Echani, I am glad. All I want is to see the two of you happy together." Without saying another word Visas left the room.

"And I thought I was cryptic" Bastila commented with a twinge of sarcasm in her voice. "Come on Brianna let's finish getting you ready."

Mira had returned to her own seat and began fidgeting in her dress, while Bastila lead Brianna to a chair in the middle of the room and proceeded to apply some old makeup tricks she had learned as a young girl on her. Brianna found herself looking directly face to face with this Bastila. She had only recently met this woman, who used to be a Jedi, and yet here she was getting her prepared for her wedding. Then Brianna started to wonder about something about Bastila that she hadn't thought of before. "Bastila how did you feel when you married Revan?"

"Scared." Her answer was direct but not too blunt. "All I had known up to that point was the order. Like you, I had many doubts in my head. Am I really going through with this? What would the Jedi council think? Do I even love him that much? However, my mother was there with me, telling me all the same things we've said to you. She helped me realize that the only question I was asking that truly mattered was the latter, and there was no doubt in my mind how much I cared for that man."

"I don't think there was much doubt in anybody's mind, we just didn't expect you to run away with him." Bastila, Brianna, and Mira turned back to the doorway to see a sleek white-haired woman in an even whiter Jedi master robe.

"Atris what are you doing here?" Brianna exclaimed jumping from the chair in half anger half surprise.

"I see you've already abandoned the pleasantry of calling me mistress."

"After you nearly killed her I would be thankful the only thing she's doing to you is being informal. and frankly I'm not sure if I'm willing to be that civil." Mira then started to move aggressively towards Atris, however, Brianna quickly stepped in front of her. "Brianna move and let me kick her ass."

"I'm not going to allow fighting on a day like this. Besides I believe Andrew invited her."

"Thank you for defending me, but I don't..."

"I'm not sure you heard me. I said Andrew invited you, however, unlike my soon to be a husband I haven't quite forgiven you yet." Atris became silent at this, she knew her former servant was going to be a little dismissive of her, but she didn't expect her demeanor to be so cold. "For the last two weeks I've had nightmares from what you did to me. I still feel a warm sensation on my skin from your force lightning. Because of you I had to slay my own sisters." Brianna then lowered her head so that the tears that started streaming down her face wouldn't be so evident. Both Bastila and Mira got on either side of her and put a reassuring hand on each of her shoulders.

"I am sorry for what I have put you through, and I wish to make amends. If you will allow me, I'd like to give you away today. I understand that it may be hard for you to accept my apology, but I think that this would be a good first few steps in the right direction."

"How dare you." Brianna peered up at once again revealing the angry tears on her cheeks. "You were the closest thing I ever had to a mother, and you betrayed me. I defended you multiple times throughout my journey with Andrew, and then I later find out you were the one who put the bounty on his head. For months you made our lives a living hell, and now you're coming to me on my wedding day asking for forgiveness." Although taken aback Atris did not waver in her outward appearance, She remained calm as she continued to stand in the middle of the doorway staring at the young women in front of her. Especially the one that she could feel had an immense amount of built up rage against her. Atris didn't say anything to defend herself, because she knew everything Brianna had said was true. She simply stayed in place and waited for the next attack or insult. However Brianna did not raise her voice, she wiped her tears away with the back of her hand and looked at Atris straight in the eye. "I appreciate you admitting your wrongs, and wanting to take the initiative to make things right. However, you've done too much damage for me to simply forgive and forget. You are going to have to earn my trust back, and that will take time."

Atris could not hold it in any and she finally responded. "You know what I didn't have to come here today. You seem to be misinterpreting something. I am not approaching you because I feel I owe you something or that I want to save our relationship. I'm doing all this, because I believe it to be the proper Jedi way to behave. You should be thankful that I haven't already criticized this entire event. Jedi do not get married and they do not fall in love, You can't be so ignorant to have not realized this. Although I'm sure your friend Bastila, has told you otherwise."

"Atris I do believe it is time for you to depart."

"So it is. Don't bother telling the exile I was here, I'm leaving the planet, and as far as he needs to know I never arrived." With that Atris walked out the door and didn't look back.

"You did well against her. She may appear to be acting like a Jedi on the outside, but after that last little outburst she gave, it is clearly evident that her soul is still stained with the dark side."

"I would have accepted her apology, but I honestly didn't sense it to be genuine. It felt more like a surface statement telling me to let it go. I wish things could be different, but she chose her path and regardless of what we say to her. She will ultimately have to pick herself back up."

Suddenly the three women's figures started to blur and the whole room began to fade away. In its place a new room appeared and this time in the middle of it was a younger, clean-shaven, Andrew standing in front of a similar looking tall mirror wearing a blue-tinted Jedi robe and tunic. He was visibly distraught, his hands were shaking and his knees felt weak. "The day has finally come. I didn't think it would feel this way. I'm enormously happy, but at the same I am just as equally anxious. Why are these negative emotions afflicting me, I've faced death on multiple occasions, and yet I was never as scared as I am now."

A slightly younger and less disheveled Atton came up behind him, put his hand on Andrew's shoulder, and said "It's because you're getting married, even I'm not that stupid."

"It's funny, I worked so hard to redeem myself and prove that I could be a Jedi again, and here I am about to throw all their ideals away for my own personal reasons."

"Hey give yourself a break. You just saved the entire galaxy, I think your entitled to one selfish request." Atton's cynical humor was not changing Andrew's demeanor, so he then decided to change tatics and be more serious. "Listen, do you love her?"

"With all my heart."

"Then you have nothing to worry about. The Jedi may have been right about a few things, but they are completely mistaken when it comes to love. You and Brianna are the perfect example of how love can make individuals stronger. So regardless if your knees are buckling and your palms are sweaty, I want you to go out to that altar today and get yourself a slice of happiness for once. Force knows you've suffered long enough."

Andrew couldn't help but smile at Atton's kind words. "Thanks Atton, you really are a good friend."

Atton chuckled at the remark and started rubbing the back of his neck. "That's nice of you to say and all but you should probably save the sweet talking for your bride to be."

"You summoned me?" Both men paused and turned to the doorway to see Visas standing there.

"Ahh yes, Visas come in I have a job for you." She entered the room with an air of curiosity about her. "After the wedding I want you to travel to Coruscant and visit the Jedi Temple there, I believe that will be the best place to start rebuilding the order."

"I see. Alright I'll depart as soon as I get the chance, but if you don't mind me asking. Why did you choose me for this mission? I'm no Jedi."

"That's where your wrong Visas. You saved our lives and the lives of thousands of others at the battle over Telos. You have proven to me and many others that you are no creation of the Sith. Which is why as of today I'm granting you the rank of Jedi Knight."

At that moment Atton jumped in between them and shot Andrew a confused look. "Wait hold on, doesn't she need to be a Padawan before becoming a knight?"

"Normally yes, however, she is one of those rare special exceptions to the rule. Considering she was a Sith Apprentice for a long period of time we will recognize that as being her prior training. Now Visas, if you would please kneel." Visas did as she was commanded, while Andrew pulled the lightsaber off his belt and ignited it. He lowered his blade and motioned to each of her shoulders saying "By the right of the new Jedi order, and the will of the force, I dub the Jedi, knight of the republic."

"Thank you so much. I will not disappoint you."

"I know you won't. Your first task when you get over there will be to put some of the items we have collected throughout our journey into an archive. The first step in rebuilding is to pick up the pieces that were left behind."

"I will see to it as soon as possible." She got up from her knees and started to walk to the door.

"Oh wait Visas there's one more thing." She stopped in place and turned back towards him. "Thank you for understanding and accepting me and Brianna's relationship. I know it was hard for you, but it means a lot that you were able to put it past you."

Unlike before she didn't grin but instead gave more of a pained smirk and said "As I told the Echani, all I want is for you two be happy." Then just as quick as she came she was gone.

"Hey bud it's time to go."

The two men left the room and walked down a narrow hallway. They soon arrived at the giant deacon doors, and Andrew could feel every nerve within him vibrating. He softly exhaled and said "I guess this is it." The both of them pushed open the doors and made their way into the room. The area inside was very open and many of the walls had gaping holes from the bombardment on the enclave, and the fields of Dantooine could clearly be see for miles; it also had an excellent view of the setting sun. There were only a few people inside, mostly consisting of the residents of Khounda who were curious when they heard a Jedi was getting married. As Atton and Andrew went down the aisle, on both sides of them stood a line of Mandalorians at attention. "Canderous sure knows how to make a guy feel important, I'll give him that."

At the altar was HK-47, T3-M4, and a very nervous looking Bao-Dur. "General, are you sure about this? I've never married anyone before."

"That may be true, but you being a Jedi is the closest thing we have to a religious figure. I would ask Atton but I don't think he would do it right."

"Hey!" Atton responded slightly annoyed.

"In any case why don't you two take your positions, I believe the bride is about to arrive." Just as soon as Bao-Dur said that the doors opened up again and Brianna with a white veil over her head started slowly strolling down the aisle. She was closely followed by Bastila and Mira, who were both holding bouquets of flowers. Andrew could feel his heart racing again, not out of anxiousness but in awe of how beautiful Brianna looked. When she finally reached the alter, she turned to Andrew and gave him the biggest smile. "Alright now that we are all here, we can get started. Due to me not having much knowledge about what needs to be said, this will most likely be brief. I believe we should start with the vows. If you would please, Brianna begin.

"Andrew Masi words cannot describe all you have dove ever since you entered my life. I was an isolated girl locked away from the galaxy, taught to both hate and fear it. That was until you came and rescued me away from my falsified shelter. You may not have realized this, but you were the first person in over ten years who even attempted to show me compassion. You saw me for who I truly was, even before I had, and you opened my eyes to brand new outlooks on life, on others, and most importantly myself. I don't have many possessions but what I can give you is the most valuable thing I own, my heart." At that moment Brianna raised her right hand to her chest , balled it into a fist like she was grabbing ahold of something, and then moved her hand over Andrew's chest where his heart would be. "From this day forward I want you to carry it wherever you go, because no matter where you are or what you're doing I want you to know that there is always a little piece of me with you. I love you in this moment and forever more."

There was a slight applause from the audience, and then everyone's attention turned to Andrew. "Now general it's your turn."

"Brianna Kae you are everything to me. I wish I could say that I would gladly die for you, but sadly I know that would only influence you to take your own life as well." Brianna was taken aback by what Andrew said. He simply grinned and mouthed the words "I heard everything", and then continued with his vow. "We were both outcasts and exiles to our respective groups, and yet in this crazy mixed up galaxy we were able to find each other. Whether it be the will of the force or just dumb luck, I'm glad that you came into my life. I want to wake up next to you every morning, see your beautiful face, and be proud to know that you were the one I fell in love with. As your husband I will care for you and keep you safe, and in return I hope you will do the same. You are my friend and now my lifelong partner, and I wish for us to always be at each other's side."

Once again there was applause, and Bao-Dur continued. "Do you Andrew Masi take Brianna Kae to be your wedded wife?"

"I do."

"And do you Brianna Kae take Andrew Masi to be your wedded husband."

"I do."

"Then by the power supposedly vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride."

Andrew lifted the veil from Brianna's face and visible tears were seen streaming from her eyes. "What's wrong" he asked concerned.

Brianna smiled once again and looked deeply into his eyes. "I'm so happy" was all she could muster. Without saying another word Andrew leaned down and sealed everything with a kiss. As their lips touched the image of them started to fade and go black. Soon light was coming back and both Andrew and Brianna opened their eyes. They were back in their room on Manaan sitting on the bed. "That was our wedding, why did we see that" Brianna asked slightly dazed. Suddenly she was attacked with a passionate kiss on the lips as Andrew grabbed both sides of her face. "What was that for."

"That experience reminded me how much I love you."

Brianna couldn't help but smile at that statement, she leaned in, kissed him back, and said. "I love you to sweetheart, and I thought it was really cute how you got nervous right before."

"So you saw my point of view as well. That's interesting, because I likewise saw yours and how you saw Atris that day and didn't tell me."

"I'm sorry, I just thought she was a part of our lives that we didn't need to hold onto. Wait a minute does that mean you also saw me before when I was... Andrew please believe me I never doubted my feelings for you, and I would never want to ever leave your..."

Before Brianna could finish her sentence, Andrew had put a finger to her lips. "I believe we both had cold feet, but that doesn't matter because we still got married and we still love each other just as much as we did back then." Andrew pulled his hand away and his demeanor started to become more solemn. "However, I will agree that it was strange we were taken back to our wedding."

"Do you think we did it wrong?"

"No. I believe if we did it wrong we wouldn't have seen anything at all. There was something important about that day that has to do with the dark entity."

"Do you think Atris has anything to do with this?"

"I'm not sure, it certainly is a possibility. She did seen like she still had a dark influence inside her, but I'm not going to write her off just yet."

"What about Revan?" "He obviously wasn't there can we rule him out?"

"After this I don't believe he is the entity, but I can't help but feel like this involves him somehow."

"If that's the case than you shouldn't lead Bastila and Carth on anymore. Forget about waiting till after the baby, they need to know now. It will be easier that way, so they at least understand why we're wanting to delay our journey."

"Hey! We're delaying our journey because of this." Andrew suddenly put both of his hands on Brianna's stomach. "Our main concern is that this little bundle of joy's well-being. Now if you feel like it's completely necessary for me to tell them I will, but if they want to leave we can't stop them."

"Alright that's fine with me. As long as I have you, I'll be fine." The two of them laid back down into bed to return to sleep, however, Andrew stayed awake for a little while longer staring at the wall. Something about the visions and the trip back into his past troubled him, he just couldn't figure out what.

...End of Ch 4...

Author's Notes- So I need to be honest. I actually have been consistently been working on this chapter and more importantLu this story, however, because of personal reasons I will officially have to say that this story will probably have big gaps in between chapters. I don't want it to be this way but I don't want you guys getting your hopes up for monthly chapter updates when I can't necessarily deliver. Of course I will work hard to make it so, but Im just trying to be realistic. If you have any questions, comments, or critiques about the story; feel free to pm me or leave a review. Thank you all who read this. As always bear with me.


	5. Faith In Our Friends

Disclaimer- I do not own the rights to Star Wars Kotor 1 and 2 or their characters and likeness.

Ch 5

Brianna began to stir herself awake, and her eyes slowly opened to see the sun shining brightly through the cracks of the shaded window. As she gradually sat up and got out of bed, a gentle kick was felt in her lower stomach. "Oh, you're ready to come out and see the world aren't you." A deep smile grew on her face, as she rubbed her enlarged abdomen. "Well I'm ready to see you too. Although I will admit, I am slightly nervous. I never truly had a mother. My mommy died when I was very young, and the only affection I received from the woman who raised me was that of a master to their servant. However, don't you fret. I would never treat you as harshly as that woman did to me, and I don't plan on dying anytime soon. You are going to be one of the most beloved objects in my life, right next to your daddy." She suddenly became quiet as she reflected on the events of the previous night. "He's very scared right now, scared that he won't be able to protect you or protect me, but I'm not worried. Your daddy is strong, stronger than I think he realizes, and he has a drive and determination that resonates to everyone around him. He has always been there for me, and he will always be there for you as well. Isn't that right sweetheart?" Brianna turned around gleaming a wide smile, only to find the other side of the bed empty. "Huh, where did he go?" She quickly closed her eyes, and attempted to feel Andrew's presence through the force. Within a few seconds Brianna was able to locate him, he was only a short distance away from the room. "I found him, but I sense he's with someone I don't recognize." She looked back down once again to her stomach, and placed her hand on top of it. "Come on let's go find out what your father's up to, and why he didn't bother to tell me he was going out."

... ...Manaan Relaxation Area...

"What are you doing?" Mira asked staring down at Atton who was spread out on a chair facing the ocean in the west central area.

"Lounging and enjoying the view. If you haven't realized yet, that pregnancy has given us the rare opportunity of having a vacation, and I plan on enjoying every second of it."

"Do you honestly think the only reason we're here is because of Brianna and Andrew's kid?"

"Of course not, I'm not that stupid. It's just that I've chosen not to search out the real reason. As far as I can tell, we are here to stretch our legs and unwind for the time being."

"Although I would love to share in your embracement of ignorance, I think it would be best if we actually knew what our fearless leaders were planning."

"Whatever it is I'm sure it will involve plenty of danger and thrill seeking action, but until then why don't you relax like me."

"I can't, I have an unsettling feeling about being here."

"Oh you're just tense because Manaan is not a busy planet like Nar Shadda."

"No it's more than that, something is not right around here. I can sense it through the force."

"Or maybe you're thinking too much into it, now why don't you just sit down and relax with me."

Before Mira could respond her comlink began to beep. She pulled it off her belt and looked at it. "It's Carth, he says for me to come to the republic headquarters as soon as possible."

"What does he want to see you for?"

"I'm not sure, maybe he needs some one on one time." Atton peered at Mira with a confused look on his face after that statement. "Oh don't look too shocked, even Republic admirals need some sort of female comfort." At that Atton accidentally fell out of his chair. "Relax I'm sure I'll enjoy his company just as much as he does mine. I mean I have to say, Carth knows how to make me feel good. You wouldn't know anything about making a woman feel good would you smuggler." With that Mira got up and left Atton still baffled and lying on the floor. "_Maybe I shouldn't have teased him so much, but hey I know he can take a joke. Besides, the face he made was priceless_."

...Republic Embassy...

"This is where Andrew's force energy is emanating from. Why is he here?" As Brianna began to walk towards the entrance of the base, a republic soldier stopped her and asked for her identification. Without a second of hesitation she waved her hand in front of the man's face and said "You do not need to see my identification, someone inside is expecting me." The man repeated what she said and stepped back.

"I guess you never learned your lesson about restraint with the force." Brianna quickly turned around to see Mira striding over towards her."

"I'm not misusing the force, I'm simply demonstrating its effectiveness on the weak minded."

"Oh come on Brianna be honest, you always wanted an excuse to use that technique ."

The soldier began to come out of his daze, and he looked thoroughly confused at both of the women. "Hey wait, who you calling weak minded?"

Brianna waved her hand once again without even looking at the man. "You want to walk away and leave us two to talk." Once again the man repeated what she said, and proceeded to walk away. Mira continued to give her a cheeky grin. "Alright maybe a little bit, but I'm sure you're no more guilty than i am."

"Touché. So let me guess, you were called to come here by Carth as well."

"No, Andrew wasn't in bed this morning and I kind of tracked him over here. Carth is here as well?"

"Yea I got a message from Carth saying I was requested to come down to the Reupublic Embassy."

At that moment Carth came walking out of the base, and immediately saw the two women. "Oh good, you two are here. Come on in and meet an old friend of mine."

The girls casually followed Carth back into the base. Soldiers and guards filled the area inside. Some of them were cleaning and changing out the energy packs on their rifles, while others were at consoles entering in important data. As Mira looked around the room she turned to Brianna and said "For a planet that is notorious for being peaceful, these guys look really eager to go to war."

"In times of stress and worry, even the most pacifistic of worlds needs to be prepared." She half-consciously commented back.

"Wow! That sounded a lot like what the Handmaiden would say." Mira then nudged the expecting mother in the side of her arm making her let out a small chuckle.

"Listen I spent twenty-one years being the Handmaiden. Did you expect me to let that side of me go completely?"

Mira did not answer, she simply smiled and continued to walk. The three individuals eventually came to the end of the room where they saw Andrew, Bastila, and a blue-skinned female Twilek talking to each other around a small holomap of Ahto City. Carth then went up to the young Twilek and said "Ladies I'd like you to meet Mission Vao, head of security here on Manaan."

Slightly surprised at being introduced in such a way, Mission quickly composed herself to look more professional and authoritative. "It's a pleasure to meet you, I assume your a part of the new Ebon Hawk crew."

"More or less." Mira retorted in her signature sarcastic tone.

"Mission used to travel with me and Carth." Bastila inserted. "Although I have to admit she was a lot younger then."

"Yea what are you going on now, thirty-six?" Carth joked

"Haha, very funny . I just turned twenty around three months ago. How bout you, aren't you pushing your sixties?"

"How'd you get such a high position at so young of an age" Brianna asked, curious about this new woman she just met, and also in attempt of preventing a foreboding fight.

"I speak all the known languages of this planet, Galactic Basic included. I have an extensive knowledge on security and all different kinds of protocols."

"She's also a master hacker, and knows how to beef up the list of accomplishments she has on her record" Carth teased again.

Before Mission could once again retaliate, Andrew spoke up. "Hey Mira, is Atton on his way? I assumed he'd be with you."

"He was, but the message I received only asked for me."

Carth now becoming serious looked at Andrew with an apologetic face. "I'm sorry I didn't realize you wanted him to be here as well."

"I asked for my apprentices. The only exception is Bao-Dur who is working on the ship."

"I can send him a message right now if you like."

Andrew took a moment to ponder. "No it's alright I'll fill him in later."

Brianna made a subtle move towards her husband, and grabbed his hand in order to get his attention. "Sweetheart what's going on?"

"Well Miss Vao contacted us this morning and requested we come speak with her."

"You see I happened to notice your ship as I passed by one of the docking bays this morning. I immediately realized it was the Ebon Hawk. It may be slightly banged up, but you can't mistake the signature look it carries. I am very glad I was able to get in contact with you, and even more so when I found out that Bastila and Carth were with you."

"Well it's always a pleasure to meet people with mutual friends." Mira said as she went and stood on the other side of Brianna.

"Thank you, but I have to admit I didn't solely call you down here to exchange pleasantries." Mission then cleared her throat, and moved around the holomap so that she was directly across from everyone else.I have a request to ask of you." Suddenly several red dots appeared across the map. "You see recently there have been random attacks on some of the citizens here in Ahto City. Normally this would be an easy case to solve, but all the victims say the assailant was fully covered in black and didn't so much as breathe when he was near them. Without any evidence or leads we can't go out and search for this guy. All we know for sure is that whoever this is likes to sneak up on people at night, and then attack them when they are in a secluded area."

"Can you not put out patrols, and see if you can catch him that way?"

"No we can't. The Selkath are very strict about the republic and how we keep the peace. They won't allow us to do a man hunt unless we have absolute certainty of who it is."

"That's a horrible rule, why would they enforce that?"

"Because the fish people want to make sure that whoever gets arrested is the real culprit, otherwise they would look bad." Mira commented. "It's the first rule of bounty hunting, have absolute confirmation on who your target is."

"Now your starting to sound like the old Mira." Brianna whispered into her ear.

"I don't know what your talking about. I never changed, and I certainly don't plan on it."

Andrew pretended not to notice the two women's banter, and spoke directly to Mission "I see your predicament, and I'm guessing you want us to act of our own free will and carry out an investigation."

Mission grinned at the man and gave a slight nod. "That's basically it, I had a feeling you'd be able to read between the lines. So will you do it?"

"I suppose we can give a little assistance to the republic while we're here."

"Excellent, but I need to give you fair warning. Technically this would be a form of vigilantism and I won't be able to save you from the wrath of the Selkath if you get caught."

"Don't worry we've dealt with worse consequences "

Unexpectedly the grip around Andrew's hand tightened, and he felt a firm tug of his arm by his wife into one of the nearby corners "Hey, do you mind me asking what you think you're doing? Don't you think it would be wise to keep as little pressure on yourself as possible, especially after yesterday and last night."

"Is everything alright" Mission asked from across the room.

"Everything is fine" Andrew quickly responded. He then looked back down at Brianna, pecked her with a small kiss on the cheek, and whispered to her "Thank you for being concerned for me, and yes I do think I need less stress right now. However, we can't put everything on hold. We are still Jedi, and we need to help out wherever and whenever we can. Besides I feel like this may be a good way for me to get my mind off of ole no name, at least for a little while.

"Alright if you say so. However, since you mentioned it I think we need to give this thing a name, otherwise we're going to be stuck constantly calling it the dark figure."

"Your right. I can't imagine having to refer to something by a description or title, instead of a legitimate name." Sensing the sarcasm in his statement, Brianna punched Andrew straight in the arm. "Ow! You hit hard for a pregnant woman." Andrew was punched yet again, this time in the other arm. "Ouch! Ok I get it I'm an ass, but listen I refuse to name that thing before I name my own child, so if you don't mind I think we should put that idea to the side for now."

"Alright but before we go back over there, when are we telling them about Revan?"

"My original plan was to tell everyone at once, but Atton didn't come." Andrew lowered his head and let out a small sigh. "Well the people who need to hear it the most are here, so why don't we still do it now. Like I said before I'll tell Atton personally later." Brianna took ahold of his hand again, and the two of them walked back towards the group. "Bastila, Carth we have something to tell you about Revan. You see..."

"Andrew don't say another word." Carth interrupted "I took the night to think it over, I let it sink, and I have accepted that this needed to be done. So don't worry about justifying your decision, because you have both of our support now. As long as I can expect you two to stick with us when it's time to start searching again." Carth then glanced over at Brianna. "Of course after you've rested and gotten back on your feet again."

Andrew and Brianna briefly looked at each other to confirm their next response, before turning back to Carth and Bastila. This time Brianna decided to address them. "Thank you for the vote of confidence, but I believe you're going to want to hold onto that until after you hear what Andrew has to say."

Carth then started to become very confused. "What do you mean? Did something happen? Is something wrong?"

"In all honesty I'm not sure. First off I need to to fully explain why we put this journey on hold. Most of it had to do with Brianna's pregnancy, however, the other reason is that I've been having these nightmares recently."

"They're worse than what you've been telling me aren't they" Bastila asked showing slight concern in her voice.

"Yes. You were right they are visions, and I believe them to be not only threatening to me but also Brianna and the baby."

Carth stepped in the middle of Andrew and Bastika looking back and forth at the two of them. "Wait I'm missing something here. What are these visions you're talking about, and why is this the first time I'm hearing about them."

"For the last month I've been having a reoccurring dream where I'm in an empty plane of nothingness and a dark figure attacks me. At first I thought it was just due to stress, but after awhile they became worse and worse. In a few dreams I wasn't able to fight back, and more recently I was unable to protect some people."

"Ok so what you're saying is that you believe there's some dark force out there antagonizing you. That's understandable, and i guess it kind of adds weight to the logic of us putting a pause to our journey, But why didn't you tell us before that this was a part of the reason for you wanting to stop?"

The words were not able to come out. No matter how hard he tried, Andrew could not muster up the strength to voice his confession. With Carth just now apologizing and giving his support, Andrew began to doubt if this was truly the right time. However, right as he was about to break a little voice once again appeared in his head. "_Don't worry sweetheart, you can do this. No matter what they say or how they react, I will still always be right here beside you._"

Andrew didn't have to look at her to know that his wife was the one speaking to him. With Brianna's love and support surrounding him, Andrew regained the confidence to go forward and tell his comrades the truth. "The reason we didn't tell you is because Brianna and I suspected Revan of being the dark figure."

"You what" Bastila muttered. Her usual calm demeanor had now been shaken, and she began to turn ill. Carth on the other hand remained calm, almost blank faced. He didn't frown, but he was also not smiling."

"You're lying" a voice blurted out from across the room that belonged to Mission Vao. "I knew Revan just as well as Carth and Bastila did, and I'm damn sure that he would never turn to the dark side again."

About to say something herself to defend Andrew, Mira began to approach Mission. However, Andrew grabbed her by the shoulder and held her back. "I completely agree with you, which is why I need to clarify that we no longer believe this theory to be true. Although I still have a feeling that he is connected to these visions somehow, after a small investigation by Brianna and I did into the matter we concluded Revan was innocent. We kept it secret because we didn't know how to tell you. I'm just glad our suspicion turned out to be false."

Then without warning Bastila ran up and wrapped her arms around Andrew's torso. "Thank you so much."

Confused by the unexpected reaction, Andrew asked "Why are you thanking us? We completely neglected to tell you anything about Revan."

As Bastila let go of Andrew, Catth stood next to her and said."That may be true, but you gained the courage to tell us now, especially when you knew how negatively we may react." The republic admiral then paused as he thought back to his attitude as of late. "How negative I may react. Hell if you wanted to, you could have just as easily never told us at all. Of course it doesn't feel good to think of a close friend possibly being evil, but you kept your faith in him. So it's only right that we keep our faith in you."

"Well I don't want you to have some false-appreciation of me. I didn't have faith that he was good, more of doubt that he was evil."

"I don't mean to butt in but isn't that the same thing." Mira finally commented.

Bastila smiled at the young red-headed woman"From a certain point of view it may be considered different, but the way I see it they are the same statement."

"Thank you for understanding. It gives me so much relief to know that you both still want to stand behind me."

"No problem." Carth said as he patted Andrew on the back. "But please tell us the whole truth next time."

"You got it, now what do you say we get out of here."

The small Group began to walk towards the exit of the Republic Base, until Mission called out to them. "Hold on. Before you go take these." She walked over and handed Andrew and Brianna two small boxes datapads. "Those are the victim reports to the assaults you promised to investigate."

"Why do I get the feeling that these are not going to be a light read" Brianna asked Mission uncomfortably,

The blue skinned Twilek did not respond, she simply winked at the her and walked away. Mira then came over, glanced inside both Andrew and Brianna's box, and said "Looks like we got a shit loud of reading to do."

...End of Ch 5...

Author's Notes- There you go guys, I hope you enjoyed the new chapter. Sorry for it being so dialogue heavy. There were just so many things that needed to be said, but I promise next chapter will have a little more action. Like always if you have any questions or critiques, whether they are good or bad, leave a review or PM me


	6. After Dark

Disclaimer- I do not own the rights to Star Wars Kotor 1 and 2 or their characters and likeness.

Ch 6

Nighttime had once again come. Andrew sat at a desk in the far corner of his room, quietly scrolling up and down through several datapads. Suddenly Brianna entered from inside the refresher and caught sight of her husband. "Are you still studying those things?"

"Not really. Any information that could be gained from these records I memorized an hour ago."

"If there's nothing more to be learned from this information, than sweetheart why are you still up?" Andrew didn't answer the question. He looked away and tried not to make eye contact with her.. "You're afraid of going to sleep aren't you?" Brianna then stepped behind the chair Andrew was sitting in, and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Don't feel like you need to act tough in front of me. If you don't feel comfortable going to sleep than I will stay up all night with you."

Andrew shook his wife's arms off of him, and stood up from the chair. "Brianna I always appreciate your kind sentiments, but right now you need all the rest you can get."

"So do you!" Brianna's voice slightly louder this time, not out of anger but to get his attention. "You think you can hide it, but I can tell you are under a great amount of stress. To see you suffer like this rips me apart. I want to stop your torment, but I know that all I can do is attempt to comfort you. So please come to bed, let me wrap my arms around you, and soothe you while we sleep."

With a growing grin Andrew came over and kissed his caring wife with a great amount of passion. "I love you Brianna. Even after two years of being together, I'm still taken aback by how much you care about me."

Brianna widely smiled, and returned with her own kiss. She then closed her eyes and laid her head against Andrew's chest. "My love has never diminished for you, and it never will. We shall always stand together."

"Yes we will, against all odds." Andrew gave Brianna a quick peck on the cheek , and then started to walk towards the door.

"Wait, sweetheart where are you going?"

"Don't worry dear, I'm simply stepping outside for a minute to get some air. Why don't you go ahead and climb into bed. I'll join you momentarily."

When Andrew exited the room, he walked a few steps down the corridor and then leaned over the railing that overlooked the ocean. The moonless view of the sky was just as breathtaking as it was during the daytime. The stars were far more visible and glorious to behold, the sound of waves crashing into the rocky wall below created a soothing sound that could give anyone weary eyes, and the ambience of utter solitude filled the area. But despite all of these relaxing elements, Andrew's mind was still a raging hive of emotions. He knew it was foolish to fear sleep, but the threat of watching Brianna or any of his loved ones get hurt was too much for him to bear. Then out of nowhere a voice called out from beside him. "You look even more ill than yesterday." The voice belonged to Kreia.

It was difficult to see her without the assistance of moonlight, but Andrew managed to make out her general shape with the blue aura that surrounded her. "Funny, I feel fine."

"Don't you dare try to belittle your condition to me. Both you and I know that you are far from alright. You maybe able to fool your companions, but not me. Because of our late bond, I can recognize the tell tale signs you give when you're in anguish. It shows in the tremble in your voice, the sluggish way you hold yourself, and the look in your eyes. Admit it exile, you're barely able to hold yourself together;

Kreia's response took Andrew aback; he had forgotten how sharp her silver tongue could be. "Actually I can't fool all of them. Brianna just called me out about how much she's noticed my discomfort." Thinking back to the conversation only a few moments ago, Andrew smirked slightly at how intuitive his wife truly was. He then looked back out at the sea and sighed. "Even so, what can possibly be done? I already tried combining mine and Brianna's power together to seek out this entity, and all it did was give us more questions."

"That is not entirely true. You may not have found the answer you sought, but you were able to eliminate a plausible suspect."

"I suppose, but it still doesn't make sense. I have run through what I saw a million times, and I still can't figure out who the dark entity is. I mean of course there's Atris, but I don't see why she would still hold a grudge over me. The two of us settled our score a long time ago, and in the memory she didn't want me to know that she was even there."

"Don't be quick to judge the motives of others. Even through my lying and deception you discovered my true purpose. However, I do not believe you have yet realized the limitations of this technique you and your wife manipulated."

"What do you mean limitations?"

"What you and Brianna performed is considered a force mind-merge, which means both of you combined your respective consciousness into one. That's why you were able to see each other's memories so fluidly, because in that moment you two were essentially the same being. However, that did not make you omnipotent; you could only see events that the two of you have witnessed for yourselves. With time and more practice you could possibly see beyond that, but as you currently are there's not much too be done. However, with that being said I commend you for the attempt. By taking into consideration what I said previously about the full extent of your power, you found a clever way of still utilizing it. You really have grown from when we first met."

Andrew smiled, he could see the slight change in Kreia's personality. He wondered if this was what she was like before she turned to the dark side. "Thank you for that, but it's still not enough. Until I figure out, with absolute certainty, who or what this entity is, Brianna and our child are in serious danger."

"Shame on you!" Once again Andrew was startled by a sudden outburst from Kreia. "Have you become so blinded by love that you've forgotten how capable of a warrior your wife is? Regardless of her child-bearing condition, she still retains the skills that both you and Atris have instilled into her."

"But last night I had a dream where..."

"Exactly. A dream, that is all it was. No matter how threatening they may seem, I doubt these so-called nightmares can enact any immediate harm to you or your family. From my point of view it seems like this enemy of yours might be twisting your own fears against you in order to elicit a certain response. If you recall I employed a similar tactic on Brianna, to trick her into taking me to Atris."

Andrew's nerves began to settle as he took in the wise words, however, his former mentor's last comment puzzled him."Kreia, I hope you don't mind me asking this. How did you feel when you did that to her?"

The question surprised the deceased woman, Kreia hadn't discussed her true feelings about her daughter in many years. She briefly turned away from Andrew, pulled down the hood that covered her eyes, looked out at the dark moonless sky, and then finally she spoke. "It hurt me more than the loss of both my hands." Her voice cracked as though she were crying, but Andrew did not see any tears. She quickly composed herself, and brought back the signature stern tone she had always carried. "However, it wasn't until after my death that I felt the pain. I'd like to believe that subconsciously I wanted Brianna to see her mistress in a more true and revealing light, but I know that at the time all I was thinking about was how my plan was coming into fruition. I saw you as the king and everyone else pawns. For that particular moment at the polar academy I wanted to expose Atris for the lying Schutta she was. She had made herself out to be a preserver of the Jedi Order, when I knew for a fact that you would be its true salvation. Now that I think back on it, that may also be why I didn't worry so much about Brianna, because I knew you would be there to save her. You had a weird habit of coming to the rescue for many of the individuals we encountered on our journey."

Although he felt like she answered him honestly, Andrew couldn't help feeling even more curious about Kreia's past "Forgive me but I have yet another question. Why did you fake your death during the Mandarlorian Wars? She won't say it outright, but from what Brianna has told me it seems like she really wanted to know her mother."

At this inquiry Kreia turned back to him, and her voice boomed with a deep frustration. "Those fools, who dared to call themselves masters, made me into a heretic, because I did not have full faith in their Jedi code. Due to me being his former teacher they accused me of influencing Revan's decision to go to war. Once he left they kept a close eye on me, and of course that led to them discovering Yusanis and... Brianna." As the name left her lips, whatever passion she had began to fade away. "When they found out about my family, I was shunned by the order and cast out as an exile. I was angry, I thought to myself 'How dare these hypocrites pass judgement on me, they know noting of love.' So I went to war out of spite of them. Yusanis joined me, and we were marvelous together. With his battle tatics and combat ability combined with my knowledge and wielding of the force, there was no stronger pair on the field. However, I was naive, and I didn't notice the transition my personality was making. It didn't happen immediately, but I began to fall down a dark path. The taste of battle changed me, as I know it did you. But it wasn't until I traveled to Malachor V that my heart fully became tainted. I wasn't present at the battle that day, although many claimed otherwise. I went there a week proceeding the activation of the Mass Shadow Generator, and beared witness to its aftermath. Republic and Mandalorian corpses were piled upon each other; the wreckage of fallen starfighters filled Malachor's landscape. There was a small amount of greenery left, but It was apparent that it would soon be gone. As I walked the planet's surface, I stumbled upon the Trayus Academy. The lure of power and knowledge contained inside its walls were too great for me to resist. That's where I committed the biggest betrayal of all, leaving Yusanis and my Brianna behind."

"Kreia, I'm so sorry." In that moment Andrew realized that there was a lot more to his former mentor than he originally thought.

"Don't feel pity for the regrets of a dead woman; they are mine to carry and mine alone." Once again Kreia pulled the hood over her eyes, and transitioned back into her normal demeanor.

"If it's any conciliation, you are making up for those mistakes by helping me and Brianna now."

"Sadly I fear it may be too late for repentance."

"Well maybe if you..." Right as Andrew was about to reconcile Kreia, a stranger sense of danger hit me. "Did you feel that?"

"Yes, it's coming from the courtyard past this corridor. Go investigate the disturbance, we can socialize later." With that Kreia's blue aura faded away into the darkness.

Andrew cautiously traversed down the hall, double-checking on the presence of his lightsaber hidden within the sleeve of his civilian robe. When he reached the courtyard it seemed to be completely deserted for the night, except for a small faint figure sitting on the edge of the water-fountain in its center. He couldn't quite make out who it was from the lack of moonlight, so Andrew closed his eyes, focused all his Force energy, and activated his Force Sight. When he looked back over to the fountain, he was surprised at who he saw. He quickly ran over to find the tiny frame of his proclaimed nephew kicking his legs, and staring out into the distance. "Vaner what are you doing out here? Where's your mommy?"

"She's asleep. I only wanted to play for a little bit, but I went to far and now I don't know how to get back."

"Vaner you shouldn't have snuck out, what if your mommy woke up and you weren't there. She'd be worried to death. Now come on, I'm gonna take you back." Grabbing the little boy's hand Andrew began to lead Vaner towards the other end of the courtyard.

"Uncle Andrew, did you know my daddy?"

Andrew couldn't help but smile at how innocent Vaner acted, even though he was partially in trouble. "Yes, him and I were good friends in the Jedi Academy. We would explore all over Dantooine, looking for new adventures to embark on or trouble to get into. That was at least until we got older and the masters cracked down on us."

There was a brief moment of silence, before Vaner asked his next question. "Am I ever going to see him?"

Even though Andrew has been asked this question by multiple people as of late, something about the way Vaner looked up at him with a longing hope in his eyes made Andrew's answer harder to give. He's now fairly certain that Revan isn't the dark entity, but that still didn't solve the issue that they are no closer to fining him than they were two years ago. However, that didn't mean he could deny any facet of hope. "Absolutely. I promise you right here and now that you will get to meet your father." Vaner began to cheer up, and the two of them continued to walk. "Listen, when we get back let me talk to your mom. I think it would be better if I..." Suddenly Andrew felt a sharp twinge of danger in the back of his head. He yelled to Vaner "Get down" and quickly drew the lightsaber hidden on the inside of his sleeve. No sooner that he activated it, a stray blaster bolt was deflected off its bright cyan glow. Instinctually Andrew dashed towards the source of the fire ready to defend himself and more importantly Vaner. But as he moved closer to the shot's origin, Andrew noticed that no one was there. "_Whoever blasted at us must be using a stealth generator_" he thought to himself. Immediately Andrew closed his eyes and focused on his surroundings. In an instant he got a lock on the assailant, and sensed their presence right behind him. Immediately Andrew dropped to his knees, and did a swift 180 sweep with his right leg. He felt a hard body fall from his assault, and with that so did the cloak of the stealth generator. When Andrew stood up he saw the full body of the assailant, and noticed they were wearing a familiar outfit that he had not seen in a long while. They were dressed fully in black robes, and wore a silver plated mask that covered the entire front of their face. "You're a Sith Assassin. I thought you guys disbanded when Kreia died."

The assailant did a quick kip up onto their feet and pulled a small metallic rod off their belt that extended into full length quarterstaff. "Not everything is entirely what it seems Jedi." The voice of the assassin was deepened and distorted. It was obvious that they were wearing a voice inhibitor to protect their identity. "Our faction may have dissolved, but that does not mean we are dead or that we don't have other masters to serve."

"Did one of these other masters tell you to attack helpless citizens here on Manaan."

"I could do a lengthy monologue and explain all the inner mechanisms of our plan, but I'd much rather skip to the part where I kill you." The Sith Assassin spun the staff in front of Andrew and dropped into an offensive stance. "Ready yourself Jedi, I will not be an easy opponent."

Moving to his own fighting pose Andrew retorted "I didn't expect you to be." He made the first move attempting an overhead slash. Immediately the assassin raised their staff up, blocked the attack, and followed with a kick to Andrew's sternum forcing him to stumble back a few steps. After a brief second to reinsert himself Andrew retaliated with a horizontal slash. The assassin instinctively jumped backwards, barely missing the cyan colored beam, and then returned with a swing of his own weapon. Andrew parried the assault, and jabbed at his assailant's head. However, the assassin bent backwards avoiding the stab and proceeded to back handspring to a safe distance. At that moment Andrew lowered his saber and smirked at his opponent. "Your'e playing with me aren't you? A person with that much agility wouldn't be wasting it by simply keeping their distance. They would have at least tried to dance around me and attack from behind. So tell me. If you're not wanting to kill me then what are you really trying to accomplish."

A small chuckle was heard behind the mask of the Sith Assassin. "You are cleverer than I initially gave you credit for." The quarterstaff once again receded into a tiny metallic rod, and the assassin put it back on their belt. "Your right, I don't want to fight you seriously, at least not yet. I simply wanted to get a glimpse of your fighting style. I promise we shall fight again, but not until I believe the time is right." Before Andrew could respond the assassin hit a switch on their belt and blended into the background. They had used the stealth generator again, and got away.

"Uncle Andrew, uncle Andrew, are you ok?" Vaner cried running over to him.

"Yea I'm fine. What about you? I shoved you to the ground earlier, you didn't get hurt from that did you?"

"No, but I got really scared when I saw you fighting that creepy man in black."

"Well don't worry. Whoever that was, they're gone now. Come on let's keep going." After finally exiting the courtyard Andrew and Vaner turned a corner that lead to yet another open sided corridor filled endlessly with rooms. The two didn't walk much further, because out of the darkness yet another figure sprinted towards them. Palming his lightsaber once again Andrew braced himself for another battle. However, once the person got closer he saw that it was simply Bastila.

The seemingly frantic mother slid down on her knees, and wrapped Vaner in a tight embrace. "Where did you go? I just came out of the refresher, and you weren't there." Peering down at his longtime friend, Andrew noticed that Bastila was wearing only a robe, and her hair was still dripping wet. He then realized that she must have just now gotten out of the shower and noticed that her son was gone. "Do you know how scared I was right now? I thought you were gone, and I was never going to see you again." That was when she looked up at Andrew in confusion with small tears in her eyes. "Did you find him?"

"Yes. I stepped outside to collect my thoughts before going to bed, and that was when I sensed Vaner in the courtyard between your hall and mine. I've already reprimanded him about what he did, so please go easy."

Bastila continued to stare at Andrew; her expression had changed from confusion to uncertainty. "There's something your not telling me. What happened?"

"I'll tell you when we get back to your room. Do you mind if I borrow your com so I can message Brianna that I won't be coming back for a little while."

However, right as Andrew finished his request the all too familiar voice of his loving wife appeared in his head once again._ "Don't worry sweetheart, take as much time as you need. I'll be waiting here for you." _

Even though Bastila could not hear Brianna, she could tell by the smile on Andrew's face that he just heard from her. "I'm gonna go on ahead, and get Vaner tucked in. Just come over whenever you finish your conversation."

Andrew waved Bastila on, and proceeded to answer Brianna back telepathically. "_How long were you listening in on me_?"

_"You were taking too long, and I began to get worried. I went to get you from outside, but you weren't there. So, I decided to seek you out through our bond, and it seemed like I found you just as you ended your fight with that assassin." _Hearing that sent a sense of relief through his body, because that meant she didn't hear his prior discussion with Kreia. _" Andrew if you don't mind, can you simply explain the situation to Bastila and hurry on back. As I said before you need your rest."_

Andrew still did not look forward to the possibility of another restless night, but for Brianna he knew he should at least try_. "I'll do my best. I love you dear, I'll see you soon."_

...Ahto City Cantina...

"There you are." Carth expressed in relief as he saw Atton sitting at the bar. The Republic admiral stumbled through a crowd of aliens and cantina regulars to get to the man. "I was wondering where you went. No one has seen you since this morning, so naturally I thought I should come look for you considering we're rooming together." Atton didn't pay Carth much mind and acted like he wasn't there; that's when Carth noticed a small collection of tiny glasses. "How many drinks have you had." Still ignoring him Atton signaled the bartender with a wave of his hand to bring another round. "Listen I understand loosening up a little bit, but don't you think you're overdoing it."

Finally Atton spoke up with a slight slur to his voice and a deep grin on his face. "No, honestly I don't think I've let loose enough." He then downed yet another hit of Juma.

Seeing the degree of his friend's intoxication, Carth decided he should probably put an end to the fun. "Come on I'm taking you out of here."

Carth grabbed the arm of his inebriated comrade intending to pull him out of his seat, but right as he did that Atton swatted him away. "Get your damn hands off me. Who the hell do you think you are."

Shocked from the outburst, Carth stepped backwards. "Atton what's gotten into you? You never act this way, regardless of how drunk you are."

"What were you doing with Mira earlier?" The man shouted back now standing up from his seat.

"What? I contacted her so she could meet an old friend of mine, and so we could discuss future plans here on this planet."

"Oh, was I not good enough to attend one of these special pow wows. Why'd you only invite her?" With each word word he spoke Atton's voice became angrier and angrier.

"At the time I didn't think you were needed. I was going to fill you in later about all that had been said."

"Well aren't you the embodiment of honor."

"Atton I've had enough of this. We're leaving, now." Carth tried to reach for Atton again, but was suddenly shoved back in retaliation. With that last response from Atton, Carth had been pushed over the edge. The Republic admiral rushed towards the enraged drunkard attempting to tackle him. He successfully connected his shoulder to his target's waist, but Carth quickly realized it wouldn't be the that easy to take Atton down. When attacked, the Jedi padawan wrapped his arm around Carth's neck and dragged his head down to the ground.

The sudden contact to the hard floor disoriented the admiral; this gave Atton a chance to roll Carth over and take a prone position on top of him. "I'm not going anywhere with you." Baling up a tight fist, Atton threw his first punch striking Catth hard across the jaw. "I had one good thing in my life, and you try to take it away." Atton gave another slug, this time opening a gash on Carth's left cheek. "I thought we were friends, but you stabbed me in the back." Going for a third and final blow Atton raised his fist high. However, this time Carth swung back before he was the victim of more abuse. The blow hit Atton hard and made him fall backwards off of Carth.

Both men quickly rose to their feet and readied themselves for another clash. But before the fight could continue several security officers surrounded them. "Freeze right there. You're under arrest for committing acts of violence inside the proximity of Ahto City."

Carth slowly started to lower his fists, but Atton was not quite as compliant. "What if we choose to not come quietly."

Pulling a stun baton off his belt one of the officers walked over to Atton and jabbed him in the back. A rush of electricity surged through the man's body as his knees crashed back down to the floor. "Well unlike you, we have the authority to elicit pain."

To avoid a similar fait, Carth unquestioningly got to his own knees and held his hands over his head. "We can never go anywhere without pissing someone off."

...End of Ch 6...

Author's Notes- Well it looks like our two favorite pilots are in a bit of trouble. Thank you all for reading this far, we're about half way through the story now. Please favorite and review the story. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.


	7. The Morning After

Disclaimer- I do not own the rights to Star Wars Kotor 1 and 2 or their characters and likeness.

Ch. 7

A severe pain pierced the inside of Atton's brain. He began to slowly stir, and as Atton turned over he fell off the prison cot that he was sleeping on. The cold floor felt like sharp blades on his skin. He quickly jumped back to his feet before fumbling back onto the cot. Within his eyes there was a dull haze that was gradually fading, and once it completely cleared Atton noticed the small containment room that he was residing in. It soon became apparent to Atton that he midst have gone too far the night before. From the corner of his eye he noticed a man standing outside the force-shield. Atton turned to see It was Andrew with a disappointed expression. A thought then crossed Atton's mind, and he let out a painful chuckle. "Man does this bring back a sense of déjà vu, except this time you're wearing clothes."

Andrew was not amused at the attempt of lazy banter . "Atton this is not a time to joke. You were arrested last night for getting in a brawl."

"Did I win?" Atton continued to quip."

"Do you think this is funny?" Mission then moved out from behind Andrew, and she was equally as irritated. "If it wasn't for your friend this would be playing out a whole different way.

Confused at the random woman yelling at him Atton questioned. "I'm sorry who are you?"

Andrew then gestured the young Twilek and said "Atton this is Mission Vao. She's head of security here in Ahto City, and the reason your not in front of a jury of Selkath facing the death sentence."

Atton still did not act serious, and once again teased Mission with a sarcastic response. "Nice to meet you chief. I'm thankful for you not throwing me to the literal sharks."

"Shut up Atton!" The voice did not emulate from Mission or Andrew, but from a furious red-head coming down some stairs behind them.

The sight of one of his closest friends took Atton aback. "Mira, what are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same thing. Mission did you mind." The security head pressed several buttons on a panel to to the side which lowered the force-shield. Once it was down Mira moved into the cell and grabbed Atton by the collar. "What the hell were you thinking?"

Atton remained unshaken. "Well the thing is I wasn't. If you didn't know I was sort of drunk."

Andrew entered the cell next, and quickly pulled Mira away before she got really physical. After a brief second to make sure she was calm, Andrew turned back to Atton. "We gathered that much, but was there a reason why you attacked Carth."

The former smuggler shrugged in response, and said "I don't know, I tend to get a little violent when I'm buzzed."

At the this point Andrew simply sighed and put a hand on Atton's shoulder. "Atton this isn't like you. If something is wrong please let us help."

Finally Atton's smug faded. He brushed away Andrew's hand, and said. "There is nothing you can do. Now if you're done interrogating me can you please let me go, because I have a wicked headache."Andrew slowly steps to the side. Atton then starts to walk past him before stopping in place to say "If anyone needs me I'm going to be on the ship." From there he makes his way up the stairs to exit the holding prison.

A loud metallic thump was then heard as Mira punched the broadside of the wall. Her hand was now trickling a small stream of blood, and her knuckles were a small shade of purple. Andrew took notice of this, grabbed the hand, and waved his own over it. Several strings of light swirled around it, and the bleeding soon stopped. "Watch yourself Mira, we don't want our top medic hurting herself."

"I'm sorry, but he really pissed me off just now."

"I understand, but you must not let anger cloud your judgment."

Mira released a deep breath. "You're right, but I can't just allow him to walk away from this; not without giving me a proper explanation first." She then stormed out of the room

"Well this has turned into a big mess." Both Andrew and Mission turned to see Carth sitting on a cot in an adjacent cell. He wore a huge black eye, and several bruises on his face.

"Glad to see you're up admiral" Andrew commented.

"I have to say you trained that guy really well. Even while intoxicated he got the better of me."

"Maybe you're just getting old" Mission joked as she released his force-shield.

Carth stood up and casually limped out. "Haha very funny. So tell me, what do we do from here."

Mission pulled a chair out of the corner, and offered to him. "Well luckily my men found you before the Selkath caught wind of what happened. You should be alright, but I would be careful walking around, rumors can fly fast."

"I guess that's sort of reassuring." Carth fell into the chair in an evident amount of pain. He squinted his eyes tight, and his muscles tensed slightly. When he at last got comfortable he looked up at Andrew to ask "By the way do we have any new leads pertaining to the nightly assaults?"

"It was a Sith Assassin, similar to those that attacked Citadel Station two years ago. I encountered them late last night." Andrew then paused to momentarily ponder on his recent encounter. "However I will say, this one seemed different from others that I've faced. When we fought each other, they held back for some reason; it was almost like they was sizing me up. If we encounter this person again we need to be careful. I have a feeling this one won't be as much of a pushover."

Carth shook his head. "Andrew we can't just sit and wait for them to attack. Do we have any plan on how to catch them?"

"I might have an idea" Mission said as she pulled out her communicator, and started entering a message. "I thinks it's time for me to call for a community meeting."

...Ahto Ciry Hangar...

The Ebon Hawk sat cooly as Atton slowly approached. Suddenly Mira shot around the corner with a furry in her eyes. She then yelled out while continuing to chase after him. "Atton slow down. What the hell has gotten into you."

Not looking back Atton kept on walking. "Nothing has gotten into me. I was having a good time and it got a little out of hand."

"Don't try to belittle this. I know it's more than that. One of the witnesses heard you mention Carth taking something away from you. What did he take?"

Atton then stops abruptly right at the foot of the exit ramp "He didn't. I was just angry and juma really doesn't give me the best judgement."

"Enough about the damn drinking! You've said multiple times now that when you get lit you turn into an ass. What I want to know is what about Carth set you off. Two days ago you were fine with each other, you practically lived in the cockpit together. What got between you two."

"You." The word escaped Atton's lips almost like a whisper.

"What" Mira asked unsure if she heard him right.

"Yesterday when you said all those provocative things about Carth, it got me all riled up; especially when you said I wouldn't know how to make a woman feel good. I know you were just kidding, but I couldn't help getting jealous."

"Why would you be jealous?"

"Because you weren't talking about me that way." Atton had turned to look Mira straight on. "For so long I wanted to tell you. I never did because it was either the wrong time, or I would just chicken out. But I'm not going to hide from my feelings anymore. Mira, I love you."

His eyes were red, and the surface of his skin appeared clammy. Instead of waiting on a response, Atton began to walk away, however Mira grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. She looked up at him with a bright gleam in her eye. "It's about damn time." She then clasped on both sides of his face and pulled him in for a kiss.

They lingered for several moments, taking in one another's emotion. When they at last parted, a deep grin grew on Atton's face. "I'm sorry I kept you waiting."

...Ahto City Courtyard...

Mission stood in front of a greatly amassed crowd. "Hello, thank you all for coming. As you may know there has recently been several random assaults on citizens throughout Ahto City. We want to bring this culprit to justice, which is why I'm going to have an assistant take a brief examination of all of you." At that point Andrew stepped forward from beside her to show himself to the crowd. "Last night he ran into the assailant, and he believes he can identify them by getting a good look at each of you." A loud murmur of disapproval flowed throughout the gathering of people. "I understand you may not all agree with this kind of investigation, but right now it is the best thing we can do. So until we've inspected everybody, no one is allowed to leave."

Andrew approaches a man standing up front. He looks him up and down and says "No you're much to short." Next he walked up the row, casually observing each person. He stopped at another man and glanced him over. The man had a great girth about him, and didn't appear to be in good health "No offense sir , but you don't seem like much of a fighter." Before he moved on Andrew spotted a little girl hiding behind the leg of whom appeared to be her mother. He walk up to the child, and kneeled down to be eye to eye with her. "How could someone as precious as you want to hurt anyone."

Once he stood back up, Andrew felt a cold touch on the back of his head. The uncloaking of a stealth generated was then seen that revealed the Sith Assassin aiming a blaster at him. "Are you that eager to see me again?"

Andrew, however, did not flinch. He grinned and said "I would drop that if I were you."

Suddenly another stealth generator uncloaked that showed Brianna with her own blaster pointed directly at the side of the assassin's head. "You're not the only one who knows how to sneak around with these things."

"Should I be afraid of a pregnant woman?"

"If you don't want a hole in your head than yes.'

The assassin laughed and dropped the blaster to the floor. "Well good thing I did not come to fight you; I'm here for your husband. I promised him a proper duel, and I intend on keeping my word." Andrew contemplated to himself for a moment, and then signaled to Brianna to lower her weapon. She did not look very certain of his decision, however, Briamna went along with it and slowly backed away. The assassin then pulled a small cylinder from their belt that extended into a quarterstaff. "Draw your blade."Andrew started to grasp at a vibroblade that hung from his belt, however, held a hand up to him. "Your actual blade please. If I'm being forced to fight, I want to face you at your best."

Andrew hesitated at the request, there were people around and his cover would definitely be blown. But he inevitably complied as well letting the saber hilt drop from the inside of his sleeve. The cyan beam was instantly ignited, and the crowd collectively gasped and gawked at the sight of it. One attendee called out "That man's a Jedi." Another shouted "I thought they were extinct."

The sound of the constant berating of the crowd soon went deaf to Andrew, his only focus was the opponent in front of him. "Your move." The assassin did not wait for a second invitation. With a lunge they swung at Andrew's head. He instinctually deflected it, and came back with an upward slash. The assassin sidestepped the attack, and did a downward strike that made contact with Andrew's leg. The blow sent him to his knees, and he barely raised his blade up again to block the next swing that came from over head. The assassin pushed their staff down, forcing the beam from Andrew's lightsaber to get closer and closer to his face. With one big shove Andrew got a brief relief from the pressure, and proceeded to roll out of the way. However, he didn't get much time to breathe as the assassin came right back at him. Andrew did his best to avoid any more hits from the staff. However, each swipe of the metallic pipe pushed his precognition further and further. Andrew soon realized he needed to end the fight before the assassin got in another shot. At last the assassin dropping to do a sweeping kick, this was Andrew's chance. As the leg swept near his leg, Andrew jumped above it and came full down upon his opponent while they were in that prone position. With his free hand he smashed his fist into their mask causing a great big crack.

From there Andrew went straight to his feet while keeping the tip of his lightsaber pointed at the assassin's throat. "You're good with that staff, but sadly it won't be enough. You are now under arrest, and will soon be taken into custody by security officials."

A painful cough escaped from the inside of the now broken mask. "He wasn't lying when he said you were fool of surprises."

"Who's he?"

"You already know whom I speak of. Is he not the one who haunts your very dreams?"

A chill chased up Andrew's spine. He peered over to Brianna, who looked just as scared as he was feeling. "You work for the dark entity?"

The assassin cackled. "So that's what you call him, I'd say he's more like a shadow. Has no face, does not suffer any pain, and never stops following you." Andrew tried not to show how uneasy he was, button the inside he was quite shaken. The presence of this person solidified the existence of the thing that had been torturing him for so long. The assassin cautiously got to their feet being mindful of the blade directed at them. "And if you expect me to reveal his identity you're wrong. He has worked too hard and too long to keep you in the dark; I will not betray him no matter what you do to me."

"Because he's your master?" Brianna spoke up a short distance away.

The assassin stuck their fingers inside the crack on their face mask and began to pull it part. The metallic plates and the attached cowl fell to the ground revealing the assailant's soft bright face and flowing blonde hair. "Because he's my lover." Everyone stood still in shock to see that the assassin was in fact a woman. "I'm sure you're fully aware of the lengths one would go to protect the one you care about exile."

"Who are you" Andrew questioned.

"My name is Sasha ot Sulem, and I am the messenger of your upcoming death."

"Sasha? You were that stowaway Revan found years ago on the Ebon Hawk" Mission commented. "You were no older than me."

Sash was not pleased that Mission had elected to speak to her. "Well I've grown up now, and I've learned a great many things."

"Yea well for your sake I hope one of those things can help you in court, because you're under arrest." Mission then signaled her men that were standing close by to take her away.

Sasha did not resist, she willingly let herself be put in custody. However, as she was being escorted away she turned to Andrew and said "Your time is coming exile, and you are going to pay for what you did." Then without another word she was carried off.

Suddenly a man from the crowd yelled out. "Hey what are you gonna do about the Jedi?" This outburst ignited a loud and near riotous fuss amongst the crowd.

Mission stepped forward attempting to ease the tension. "Everyone calm down this man has worked closely in this investigation. He means no harm to any of you."

"Why don't you tell that to the son and wife I lost because of their meaningless war" another crowd member shouted.

"Please he only wants to help" she pleaded further.

However, Andrew moved in front of her and held a hand up. "Mission don't worry. It's better that we leave Ahto City. After the incident last night concerning my two pilots, it will only be a matter of time before the Selkath catch wind of it."

"Where will you go?"

"Not sure just yet, but I'm fairly certain that you are not the only ally we have in this galaxy."

Mission looked over Andrew's shoulder to see the crowd. She frowned and yelled out to them. "Because of you jackasses he's gonna leave, you can get out of here now." Silently pleased the mass of people slowly began to disperse.

Brianna sent out a message on her comm informing their friends of their departure. As she finished Brianna nodded to Mission and Andrew, and the three of them walked to the Ebon Hawk. Once they arrived Mission stopped halfway to the ramp. "It's just as big as I remember.

Andrew placed a hand on her shoulder. "Yet she maneuvers like she was the size of a starfighter."

Mission looked up at Andrew with a disappointed expression. "I only met you yesterday, but it feels like I'm losing a long time friend."

All Andrew could do was chuckle to himself. "I tend to have that effect on people."

She extended her hand to him. "Farewell, master Jedi. If you need anything feel free to contact me."

Andrew and Brianna said their goodbyes to the head of security, and then boarded the ship. When they entered the garage Brianna stumbled slightly leaned against the wall. Andrew immediately checked on her. "Dear, are you alright?"

"Yea, I'm good. I just need to lay down."

With a small smile he pecked her on the cheek. "Alright, why don't you get to bed." She left him with one last kiss on the lips, and then gingerly waddled down the hall. Now that he was alone, Andrew took in a deep breath. Things happened so fast, he didn't have a chance to process it. This dark figure, this dark entity, this shadow is a real physical being. That thought swam through his head, and then suddenly he realized something. The shadow is a physical being, being that can be touched and felt. In other words he is a mere man, a mortal man, and Andrew can deal with a mere man. Now that he was feeling better, Andrew made his way to the cockpit where he spotted Atton flipping switches and prepping the ship. However, what caught Andrew's eye was that Atton was gleaming with a bright grin. "You seem oddly chipper. Did something happen?"

"You can say that." Atton hit a button on the his dashboard, and the ship began it's ascent. Andrew took the copilot seat and started to stretch out. After a few minutes Atton turned to him and said "Hey listen, I really am sorry for putting us in this position. My emotions ran wild for a bit, and ended up producing quite bit of trouble for us."

Andrew grinned at the man, reached over, and patted him on the back. "It's good that you admit your mistakes Atton, it shows that you really are learning."

"Well I'm just glad it worked out in the end."

"So you finally told Mira."

All color disappeared from Atton's face. "Wait, what? How did you..."

"Atton we've all known, her included. We were just waiting on you to muster up the courage."

Atton sighed. "You know sometimes you're a real pain in my..."

"Andrew, you need to come quick." Mira herself had just ran frantically into the room.

Confused and also concerned Andrew asked "What's wrong?"

"It's Brianna, her water just broke, she's going into labor."

Now all color in Andrew's face disappeared. "Oh, not now."

...End of Ch 7...

Author's Notes- Now the real drama is about to begin. Stay tuned for a chapter full of love, comedy, and most likely pain. Please R&amp;R and I'll see you in chapter 8.


	8. The Culmination

Disclaimer- I do not own the rights to Star Wars Kotor 1 and 2 or their characters and likeness.

Ch. 8

"Ahhh!" Brianna screamed as her back arched across the medical cot. Her nails dug deep into the soft cushion part of the bed, her face was pure red, and sweat poured down from her temple.

Mira padded her with a cool towel, "Just hold in there Brianna, you're doing so well. We're gonna get you through this."

Andrew then stepped into the medbay. The concern in his eyes could burn through metal. He immediately moved to Brianna's side and said "I can't believe this is happening. How are you feeling dear?"

"What the hell kind of question is that" she yelled at him. A deep painfully fury had built up in Brianna's voice, and she was more than willing to let it be heard.

However, Andrew did not seem to enjoy his wife's new demeanor. "I'm just guessing you're pretty far into labor."

Brianna grabbed him by the collar and pulled him in, so they were forehead to forehead. "What do you think?"

Not turning his gaze away from his rage induced wife, Andrew called out to the other woman in the room."Mira how are we coming on the sedatives?"

"Sedatives? I thought you'd want to use some Jedi meditative technique instead." Mira made sure to emphasize her signature sarcasm in her response.

Brianna let out a painfully scream, and squeezed tightly on Andrew's hand making him yelp out in pain. "Really not a good time to joke Mira." He then attempted to pull away from her iron grasp. "Dear you're crushing my hand, remember you're the one who heals fast."

Mira picked up a small syringe from the workbench. "On that note 12cc of kolto coming right up." She then pulled out a tiny cylinder full of a silver looking liquid from the inside of her robe."

Dumbfounded at what he both heard and saw, Andrew tried to question Mira. "Kolto? When did you get Kolto?"

"Where do you think me and Atton went when we first arrived at Manaan" Mira teased as she stuck the needle inside the small container, and started to extract the liquid. "We took a little trip over to one of their reserves, and liberated a

few viles. I had a feeling we might need them."

Holding up a warning finger with his free hand, Andrew looked her dead on. "Mira you're a Jedi. You shouldn't have resorted to stealing, there were far better ways of going about obtaining it."

Brianna screamed once more, and this time squeezed Andrew's hand even harder. "I don't care how she got it just put it in me!" At that point with an equally pain stricken face as his wife's, Andrew waved Mira to proceed.

The red-headed midwife took ahold of the arm that was still gripping to the side of the bed, sanitized a small spot on the forearm, then stuck the needle in. She took one last look over to Andrew before turning back to say. "Alright, now Brianna I need you to start pushing."

Many agonizing hours pass. Brianna spits and screams the entire time, however, through it all Andrew never let go of her hand. He never let his support or love for her falter; even if she did threaten to kill him several times throughout the ordeal. Eventually it got to the point where the baby began to crown. "Ahhh!"

"Good Brianna, keep going" Mira coached her on. "We're getting a good look at the head now."

"You're doing great dear, just a little further." Andrew whispered to her. He took the wet rag they had been using, and wiped her brow once more.

Mira then called out to Brianna with a loud and firm tone. "Almost there. Give one last big shove."

"Ah." Brianna put all that remained of her energy into that one final push. Suddenly the screech of a tiny infant filled the room, and the immense pain that Brianna felt slowly began to subside."

"Here we are." Mira held the child up to the light to more thoroughly examine it, and after a few moments a tired smile appeared on her face, "Congratulations guys, you are now the proud parents of a baby girl."

The little one was first brought beside Brianna's so that she could see her. Andrew leaned in close to his wife's head as well in order to get a glimpse of his first child. "A girl, you called it dear. What do you think of her Brianna?"

Tears filled Brianna's eyes as she stared at the innocent little creature she created. "She's so beautiful." Her eyes slowly began to close and her head fell against the pillow beneath her.

Andrew noticed his wife's sudden fade away, and he became slightly concerned. He nudged her arm gently and whispered "Brianna?" When there was no response Andrew's concern quickly turned to panic. This time he started shaking her arm. "Brianna!"

"Relax, she's only fallen asleep" Mira cooed. "Pushing a kid out that fast can take a lot out of you."

Taking a breath Andrew stepped backwards, and fell into a chair that sat in the corner. "You sound like you're speaking from experience."

The young woman chuckled at the transparent insinuation. "Well I've never been knocked up before if that's what you mean, but there are still some things you don't know that I did in my past life." She then brought the baby girl to Andrew, and placed her in his arms.

He smiled at the infant. Next to her mother she was the most beautiful thing Andrew had ever seen. A small puff of white-hair expelled from the top of her head, meaning that she was likely going to share many features with Brianna just like her mother before her. Andrew was filled with so much pride and joy that the thought of turning away from the little being that laid peacefully in his arms made him shutter.

Suddenly Atton entered the room covering his eyes. "Is everything good? Has the carnage ended?"

Mira thumped him in the back of the head, and scowled "This wasn't a massacre."

Bastila entered next, and she wore a wide smile. "Oh my goodness, do we finally have a new crew member?"

Andrew brandished his newborn to his childhood friend. "Yes we do. She may be a small addition, but I'm sure she'll have a big impact around here."

"Let me see." Vaner budged himself into the room from behind his mom. When he caught sight of the little one his eyes shot open on wonder.

Andrew took notice of the boy's amazement, and slowly gestured the child towards him. "Vaner would you like to hold her?" Without a second's hesitation Vaner furiously nodded his head. Andrew waved him over, and gradually placed the baby gently into the little boy's arms. "Here you go. Careful, keep her head close to your chest." Vaner did as he was told making sure not to hurt his newest friend.

The room was quickly becoming crowded, however that didn't stop Carth from taking a peek himself. He stood outside the door seemingly proud of being a witness to all that was happening. "What's her name" he asked.

Vaner handed the infant in his arms back to Andrew, and after getting his child once again in a comfortable position he answered "Haven't picked one yet. Brianna and I were supposed to decide when she finally came. However, my loving wife is currently indisposed at the moment, so the naming may have to wait."

Bastila peeked over his shoulder, and started wiggling her finger in front of the infant. "Whatever you choose, it needs to be something that means something to the two of you."

Andrew continued to stare down at peaceful being nestled in crinkle of his forearm. He was afraid that if he took his eyes off of her, she would fade into thin air. As a Jedi he never imagined falling in and getting married let alone having his own child. Soon a deep smile grew on his face. "Just her existence means something to me."

Suddenly Bao-Dur shot into the room with a bewildered expression on his face. "General, we just received an urgent message from Coruscant. It's Visas she's in trouble."

Bastila immediately grabbed the baby from Andrew and said "I got her, you go."

He quickly jolted out of the medbay, and straight to the main hold where an enlarged hologram of Visas stood atop the center terminal. "Visas...Visas what's going on?"

A deep static rung when she spoke due to a weak signal, however, she was still able to be heard. "Andrew please hurry, the temple is under attack." She sounded distressed, and out of breathe. Visas seemed to be trying to get the message quickly. "We've been overrun with Sith Assassins. They're destroying everything. I can hold them off for a little while longer, but there are too many for me to properly halt their invasion."

"Sit tight Visas, we're on our way." Andrew then disconnected the signal, and called out "Atton get to the cockpit now. It will take us several hours to reach Coruscant."

"Roger that." Not wanting to waste anymore time, Atton booked it to the front of the ship.

Bastila then walked in still cradling the newborn. "The Assassins are obviously trying to make a comeback. The question is why, and for whom."

Andrew reached out and gently rubbed the the underpart of his baby girl's chin. "You're right in your suspicions Bastila. I sense that we're going to find more than just a ragtag team of pipe swingers waiting for us there." He then stroked the trim of his goatee, and pondered for a moment. "Don't ask me how I know , but I suspect the Shadow is waiting for me there. Everything that has happened in the last few months has been building up to this one moment."

The expression Bastila wore became even more worried. She spotted Mira walking by, and she handed the baby over to her. "Can you take this little one back to the medbay with her mother, and make sure she gets fed something." With a subtle nod Mira took the child, and went off to do the task she was asked to perform. Once she was gone Bastila turned back to the man in front of her. "Now Andrew I know you don't want to hear this, but once we get there I think you need you to stay here on the ship."

"Bastila I can't do that." The statement came out flat, and unyielding in the sound of its validity.

However, Bastila continued to plead with her friend. "Andrew please let us take care of this. Not every fight needs to be yours. You literally became a father mere minutes ago."

"And you've been a mother for five years." This time Andrew was stern, and unshaken in his resolve. "My life is no more sacred than yours."

"I would m argue against that theory, but honestly it's irrelevant. The fact of the matter is your wife is currently unconscious, and will probably remain that way for quite awhile. Someone needs to stay behind and look after her."

Andrew let out a small sigh. "I was actually hoping you could do that." At this Bastila became shocked and she shot him a warning glare. "Listen this is not about me leaving Brianna behind. It's just this is something I have to do alone."

"Just like you had to face Kreia alone" Bastila sharply quipped. "Do you remember that you nearly died that day?"

"Yes I remember that day. I also remember that you weren't there." As the words came out Andrew realized they sounded much harsher than he meant. "I'm sorry I know you're only trying to help, You were always good about looking after me, and I want you to know that I appreciate that. But I really do need to do this." The tension between the two was slowly subsiding. "If it helps I'm not going in there alone, I'm taking Atton with me."

"Only Atton?"

Andrew gave a soft nod. "If it's as bad as Visas says than I need Bao-Dur and Mira helping you."

The plan was gradually starting to make sense to Bastila, yet she still did not feel anymore relieved. "What about Carth?

A small chuckle escaped Andrew's lips. "Are you kidding? He could barely stand last time I saw him. I'm not taking him along, he needs all the rest he can get."

Now realizing that it was virtually useless to argue, Bastila gave in. "Alright you win." With a big smile Andrew pulled her in for a tight hug. "I should have known how unmovable you would be once you made your mind up."

After letting her go Andrew walked over to the couch and took a seat. "Best to get comfortable while you can, because in a few hours all of us will have our hands full."

Several hours pass by before the Ebon Hawk finally escaped from hyperspace. As they flew through the atmosphere of the mechanical city, the recently refined Jedi Temple came into view. No tremendous structural damage was visible, however, huge fumes of smoke were escaping from the inside. Once they touched down Andrew and Atton prepared themselves by the exit ramp. Bastila came over looking just as worried as she was earlier on. "I suppose there's no talking you out of it." Andrew shook his head. She then wrapped her arms around his torso and whispered "Be careful, you have much more to live for now."

"I will. May the Force be with you." With that Andrew and Atton set down the ramp, and the both of them made their way to the temple. As they approached the came upon a tall gaping hole where the entrance door used to be.

"You know they could have just knocked" Atton dryly joked.

Andrew continued to stare at the hole, something didn't make sense about it to him. "I thought Sith Assassins' specialty with stealth. Why did they go to such great lengths to make this when we know they could have just as easily snuck in."

"Maybe the change in command also affected some of the ways they do things. But honestly I don't think this is a good time to be analyzing to deeply into their battle strategies. Visas needs us right now."

Andrew agreeing my nodded. "Your right. Prepare your blades, we don't know what to fully expect in there."

Both men unclipped the sabers hanging from their belts. Andrew with his one cyan tinted blade, and Atton with his two yellow. They cautiously moved forward through the building. Everything was dark within, except for the occasional burning pile of Jedi robes or holocrons. Things were in disarray inside the temple, yet there were no signs of battle or indications of invasion other than the giant hole.

After turning a corner Atton suddenly stopped halfway through a hallway poor lit hallway. "I don't get it why haven't we been attacked yet."

Taking a moment Andrew focused some of his Force energy into his eyes to use Force Sight. He looked in all directions around him, and only saw the aura of the man standing next to him. "There doesn't seem to be anybody else here."

"Do you think they've already come and went?"

Andrew started to become very worried. "I hope not. We need to find Visas. I still faintly sense her somewhere in the temple."

"Than let's keep moving." The two men continued down several corridors, still not running into any opposition. Soon at the end of one hall they came upon a giant that appeared to have formerly been a dueling training room for padawans inside they found Visas alone staring out an wide open-viewed window overlooking the city. Atton came running up to her. "Visas there you are, looks like you held up pretty nice. Why don't we get out of here before there's more trouble."

Visas did not look away from the window. "There is no need for that. We're safe."

"Even so we should probably all still head back to the ship." Atton placed a hand on Vissas's shoulder, and attempted to urge her to follow them.

She turned around and looked straight at Andrew. "May I ask you a question?"

Confused at the request Andrew asked "Does it have to be right now?" Visas did not move, and she gave the impression that she wasn't going to until she got a proper response. Andrew saw this and sighed. "Alright go ahead, but we can't take too long."

"Why did you hurt me?" The question came out cold, and it was only amplified with Visas's blank expression.

"What?" Andrew was deeply confused. "I would never intentionally you hurt."

"That's a lie. You came to me with that woman in toe, and the both of you wished to do me harm." She slowly took a few steps forward not taking her eyes off of Andrew, while Atton stood silently where he was not quite sure what was going on.

Andrew took a step forward as well trying to knock some sense into her. "That's not true and you know it. I thought you were over this."

"Why because it's been two years" Visas snapped back at him. Andrew had rarely seen her raise her voice, but when she did it shook him deeply in his core. "I will never forgive you for stabbing me in the heart." A devious grin then suddenly grew on her face. "And taking away the chance of devouring that planet." She then thrusted her arm forward Force Pushing Andrew back into the wall.

"Hey what the hell." Atton ran up and grabbed Visas by the arm, however she turned back on him unleashed a volley of Force Lightning sending him to his knees. He screamed out in agony. She then levitated him off the ground and threw him to the opposite wall, instant knocking him unconscious.

Andrew attempted to get back up, but he found that he was under a strong Force Stasis. Visas looked down at him, and started to cackle. Andrew was without words, why had She betrayed them. "I can see in your eyes that your confused. But to be honest I can't really blame you, After all it's been so long since we've last seen each other. It may also be that I'm no longer wearing this." Visas then held up her hand to the side, and a small white metallic object flew into it. After focusing in on the item, Andrew saw that it was in fact the mask of Darth Nihilus.

...End of Ch 8...

Author's Notes- What's going on. Has Visas gone off the deep end, or is there a much higher power at work here. Stay tuned for the next installment. There are only a few chapters left.


	9. Sins Of The Past

Disclaimer- I do not own the rights to Star Wars Kotor 1 and 2 or their characters and likeness.

Author's Notes- Finally the next exciting piece of this story's long puzzle. Sorry it took so long. I would give an excuse, but I'm sure you all don't care about. So without further ado, enjoy the new installment.

Ch. 9

Brianna shot up from the medical bed in a cold sweat. She looked around and saw Mira sitting in a chair at a corner of the room. In her arms was a small brown bundle of cloth that she was gently waving a finger in front of. Soon Mira notice that her friend had awaken and she said. "Good you're awake."

Brianna grasped at her forehead still feeling slightly faint. "How long was I out?"

"Close to nine hours." Mira stood up from her seat and walked to the side of the bed. "Do you want to hold your baby?"

With a bright smile Brianna nodded. As Mira handed the little infant over Brianna's instantly lit up. "She is so beautiful."

"Much like her mother."

Brianna chuckled. "Smooth."

Mira shrugged. "I can't take all the credit, you're husband said it first."

A thought then entered Brianna's head's as she peered around the room curiously once again. "Where is Andrew anyway?"

All of sudden Mira became visibly nervous. "Well, ugh, the thing about that is."

Before Mira could finish her statement Brianna sensed a sharp disturbance in the force that made her nerves chill. "Mira where are we? What's happened?"

With a deep sigh, the red head answered. "We're on Coruscant, there's been an attack on the Jedi temple, and Andrew has gone to rescue Visas."

A deep look of concern filled Brianna's eyes. "I have to go help him." She attempted to hand off her new born child to Mira, but Brianna was halted by a new woman who had just entered the room.

It was Bastila, and she held her signature stern attitude in her voice. "You will do no such thing. You are to stay put in that bed and rest." Bastila then stepped over, and relieved Brianna of her child.

Although she was still obviously exhausted, Brianna continued to press her point. "Bastila you don't share a Force Bond with him, you can't feel what I feel."

Bastila however, did not falter. She simply cradled the young child, and peered down at Brianna. "No I can't. All I can compare it to is the constant faint glimmer of what remains of my husband."

This slowed Brianna down to a near halt. "Bastila I..."

"It's okay, I know what you meant." Bastila classes her eyes took in a deep breathe. "Brianna, I know you love Andrew; we all do. But he's already made a point of wanting to do this on his own. He took Atton along with him, but that was only so I wouldn't worry as much."

Brianna thought to herself for moment and then she began to chuckle to herself. "Of course he did. Andrew is always so stubborn, never wants to accept help even when he knows needs it."

"It's because he cares about all of us; he cares about you and your child." Bastila tried to get her point across as clearly as possible. "Ever since he found out what kind of influence he had on people, he hated the idea of forcing them to go to battle."

A scoff escaped from Mira. "Yea but what he fails to realize is that he is not forcing us to do anything. If I want to storm an overrun cave of flying Shyrack on Korriban, it's cause I have an itching trigger finger."

Bastila however, came back on Mira. "Regardless of his obvious thick headedness, Brianna you are still only a few hours removed from child birth. Your body simply has not fully recovered yet. That is the sad truth."

Brianna looked down defeated, because she knew that Bastila was right. "Mira I have to put this little one down to rest, and go to Carth's quarters to check on his wounds. Would you mind starting Brianna on another round of Kolto transfusions. Hopefully within a few hours she'll be hundred percent again." Bastila then left the medbay with the newborn baby in tow.

Brianna laid her head against the pillow looking away at the wall in sadness, deeply worried about Andrew. She could strongly sense that there was something wrong, but she was powerless to do anything about it. Suddenly she felt the warm hands of Mira placed over her stomach, and from those hands flew visible streaks of force energy that flowed into Brianna. She was being force healed. "What are you doing? That's not Kolto."

"I'm not giving you Kolto. It's too slow, and you don't have much time. You need to get to the temple as quickly as possible."

Taken aback Brianna suspiciously questioned Mira. "Wait you're letting me go?"

Mira then looked straight up, and Brianna could see directly into her eyes. There was deep seed of worry present in them that wasn't there before. "It's not only Andrew in there. Atton went along with him." That was when Brianna understood. Mira had someone she cares about in danger as well. Mira looked back down at her hands, and continued her hasty work. "Even in your weakened condition, you're still a hell of a lot stronger than me." As the threads of force energy slowly subsided Mira walked across the room, grabbed a small metallic cylinder from one of the counters, and then handed it off to Brianna. "I can't necessarily sense the surrounding dark side like you, but I still have a bad feeling about this. You have to go save them."

Brianna accepted her weapon and nodded. "I'll do my best." She then jumped off the bed and slowly moved out the door.

As Brianna left Mira called out to her. "May the Force be with you."

Being careful not to alert Bastila, Brianna sneakily creeped off the ship. Although her movement was significantly slower than usual, it still did not take Briamna long to arrive at the temple. She came upon the giant hole that Andrew and Atton had stumbled across, however unlike them she did not question why it was there. She kept moving forward ignoring all the broken rubble and fires; Brianna's only concern was those two men. She let her senses lead her, mostly focusing on Andrew's presence through their bond. With each step the feeling became stronger until she eventually came upon what appeared to be a large chamber for the old Jedi Council. That was when Brianna saw Atton fly across the room and hit hard against a wall. Both shocked and concerned she dashed in, and witnessed Visas standing over Andrew menacingly. However, Brianna's presence was not ignored. Visas turned on her feet and stared directly at her with devious smile on her face. "Ahh, look who just arrived."

Andrew looked over as well, however his expression was more of shock than relief. "Brianna what are you doing here?"

"I sensed you were in danger, I had to come."

"And what a pleasure it is to have you here sister of the Echani." Visas hissed at her. "Now I can kill you both at the same time."

Briamna was beyond confused, she didn't know what was going on. "Why are you doing this Visas? I thought we were friends."

"That's not Visas. It's Darth Nihilus." Andrew called our. "Somehow he's taken over her mind through his mask, and has bent her to his will."

"Good insight Exile, but you are only partially correct." Visas spun back to Andrew only this time the sinister grin was replaced with a look of scorn and hatred. "I am Darth Nihilus, but I am also the woman you turned away. "

"What are you talking about?"

Visas looked down upon the dirty white face guard firmly grasped in her hand and continued to explain. "The prolonged exposure of this mask has allowed the dark essence of Nihilus to infuse into my body. I have all his memories all his emotions, however, it is still my consciousness."

"You are doing this willingly?" Brianna bellowed.

Visas's however, ignored her. "Of course I was resistant in the beginning, but the mask has a certain way of finding your deepest pain and bringing it to the surface. At first I experienced the physical torture that the former wearer suffered, both the hunger and the constant burning sensation inside my heart. But I held strong, I eventually built up a tolerance saying it was only in my head. But that was only the physical the real agony came when I was shown visions of the death of my planet. I may have accepted it's loss, but I did not expect to have to relieve its final moments over and over."

Brianna slowly began to walk towards her, extending her hand out to touch her shoulder. "Visas, we're so sorry."

Just as Brianna was about to touch her, Visas swung around and slapped Her hand away. "Even through the constant memory of my people, I held true to the light. But the last torture I went through was the most agonizing. I was forced to witness every single moment I saw you two together. When I saw his arms around you instead of me, when I witnessed him take you as a wife instead of me, when I heard him say he loved you instead of me." Visas paused and her head shot downwards looking directly at the floor, her body was shaking, and the air around her was becoming cold. At last her head picked up again and she gave a hard hateful glare to Brianna. "I was able to resist all of it, but the final straw came nine months ago when I was told you were with child." Brianna's body went stiff, she had no idea Visas had all these emotions inside of her. "All of my defenses collapsed, and I let my true feelings come to the surface."

Although shaken Brianna still felt she needed to comfort the woman in front of her. "Visas, we never meant to hurt..."

"Shut up you whore" Visas shouted. "I will not listen to your patronizing nonsense any further." She stared down at Brianna's hand. "I see you brought your saber, but I also notice your arm is uncontrollably shaking. I assume you're not at your best right now."

It was true. It took everything Brianna had to hold her weapon let alone fight. But she was not going to let herself give up so easily. She tightened the grip she had on her blade and responded. "I don't care. If you threaten the man I love, it doesn't matter if we're friends or not, I will end you."

"It's amusing that you think you can defeat me." Visas drew the lightsaber that hung off her belt and then activated it; the beam glowed with a

radiant purple tint. "I've been looking forward to this."

Brianna activated her own saber and raised the blue blade right beside her face. "Bring it on bitch." Without waiting any further Visas lunged at Brianna attempting to jab at her midsection. Brianna quickly parried and did a spinning slash at one of Visas's arms, which was blocked in turn by Visas whom returned with a forearm to Brianna's face. She backed away briefly, and noticed a small trickle of blood emanating from her bottom lip. Brianna knew that Visas was playing with her, otherwise she would have done more damage than giving her a bloody lip. However, what could Brianna do. Her movements were much to slow to seriously fight back, yet she refused to leave Andrew and Atton behind. With what little energy she had, Brianna charged at her, swinging left and right and forcing Visas's guard to become loosened. At one point she swung down at the woman's legs, and knocked off a piece of the lower part of her robe. It was at this that Visas showed that she had enough of the fight. With one big thrust of her arm Visas force pushed Brianna backwards hard against the wall right next to Andrew.

"Brianna are you okay" Andrew asked concerned. He tried to reach out to her, but he could not raise his arm due to the Force Stasis not fully being worn off yet. She eventually began to stir which relieved him slightly.

"I'm sorry, I did the best I could" Brianna said as she turned over to look at him. There was unrest in her eyes. She put up the best effort she could, but even Brianna knew she was no match for her dark side infused former ally.

"Why did you come here?" Andrew's voice was full of worry and deep regret.

However, although her whole body was in pain, Brianna still managed to crack a small and chuckle to herself. "Do you ever listen to me? You and I stand side by side..."

"...Against whatever faces us" Andrew finished. He was finally understanding how far that vow made by the two of them would go. He could not help but smile, desperate the helpless state they were in. "I love you."

"I love you too." Brianna managed to slide her hand over and grasp onto Andrew's. She needed to be connected with him, not through their Force Bond, but through each other loving touch. "I will always be with you, in this life and the next." Tears began to form in Brianna's eyes. "The only thing I regret is that we won't get to see our baby grow up."

"You don't have to worry about that." The two lovers were then jolted with a violent sensation of of Force Lightning running through their bodies. They turn to see Visas slowly stalking towards them with her free hand extended outwards. "Once I kill everyone aboard the Ebon Hawk. I'll take your child and raise it as my own." Another volley of lightning escaped from Visas's fingers putting making Andrew and Brianna in pain. "Don't worry, I'll tell her how great her father was." Once more she filled them with agony as another stream of lightning danced across their bodies. "At least until he started to become foolish at the end of his life and took on an enemy he never should have even made." As Visas finally loomed over them, she raised her lightsaber up as though she was going to strike down upon them. "Both of you prepare to become one with the Force."

As the blade came down two yellow shaded beams fell in front of its descent, and blocked it from hitting Andrew and Brianna. Atton was responsible for the attack's halt using his twin blades. He looked directly at Visas with a fiery passion behind his eye. "I don't think so you blind schutta. You're not gonna make that kid an orphan." With a sharp shove of his blades upward, he pushed Visas back and forced to take defense. He turned down to Andrew and Brianna and waved his hand loosening the stasis on Andrew's body. "Run I'll hold her off." Without another moment's hesitation he dashed forward to begin his own duel with Visas.

As the two of them battles, Andrew and Brianna slowly stood up, both supporting the other as they got to their feet. Briana looked over at her husband with concern. "Andrew we can't leave Atton."

With his legs still weak from the prolonged stasis Andrew watched on as Atton twisted and turned with his blades trying to fight off a woman he considered a friend. "Don't worry, we're not leaving him. We just need to figure out how to defeat her."

Brianna thought to herself as well, then an idea came to her head. "What if we combine our power again."

"Like when we looked into the past" Andrew questioned. "I'm not sure that'll be able to help us."

"No but that was only a small piece of it. Didn't Kreia say you had unimaginable power before you gave half of it to me."

"Yea."

"Well what if I gave that half back to you." Andrew peered over at Brianna as he realized what she was suggesting. "You should be able to outclass her then."

"That's completely out of the question." Andrew was not going to have any of it. "Your accelerated healing is the only thing keeping you standing right now. If wasn't for that you would be experiencing the full effects of post child birth. Besides how would we even do it."

"Like we do most things through our Force Bond."

A realization then came to Andrew. "That's it, the bond, that's how it works." He then turned and grabbed his wife by her shoulders. "Brianna I need you to listen closely. We're going to connect our minds again, but this time we need to focus on fighting together, being in perfect synch. Essentially we need to truly fight side by side. Are you ready?"

A big smile grew on Brianna's face. "With you? Always."

Andrew returned with his own grin, and reached down to take ahold of her hands. "Alright then focus in, concentrate solely on my voice, and I'll do the same for yours. Let my body be your body, and vice versa. Let us not only be one through the mind but also through the body's. Let the force flow and make us one in the same."

Atton continued his assault on Visas, each blow with as much energy and determination as the last. When she blocked one blade from above, he'd come up with the other from below. As one slash was deflected, another took it's place. Atton trained endlessly to become the excellent close combat fighter that he was, however, it would still not be enough. Atton took his lightsaber and swung both of them upward in an attempt to hit his opponent's torso, but Visas jumped backwards to avoid the attack, and in on swift motion Visas swung her blade and amputated both his hands clean off. Atton fell to his back screaming in pain. Visas then stalked over him, carefully pointing her red blade at his throat. "That was a valiant effort, but there was no hope in you ever matching up to my power."

"What about us?" Visas turned around to see Andrew and Brianna striding towards her, no longer hanging on one another to stand. There was also visible change to their appearance. The inside of their eyes shined of solid bright blue, and they also spoke together in synch "You may have had an advantage over us individually, but now the two of us are connected and of one combined mind."

Visas began to cackle. "You think partnering up will make it any easier for you. You're going to pay dearly for your feeble-mindness."

"This is your last chance Visas" They warned. "Turn away from the darkness." There was an unshakeable confidence to both Andrew and Brianna's voice, it neutral in tone, booming in its firmness. They showed no signs of faltering or backing down.

"Or what your going to kill me" Visas hissed. "You would never kill me your Jedi pride would never allow for."

Both Andrew and Brianna grinned in what appeared to unison. "It is true Andrew may not be willing to end your life, but you forget dear Visas. You threatened the life of a former Echani warrior and her family, something she does not take kindly. In other words Brianna is more than happy to end you."

Visas, however, did not flinch. She continued to hold her unwavering certainty to the size of her power, and was more than willing to further put it to the raised her still ignited saber and said "I'd like to see her try."

Andrew and Brianna activated their lightsabers and at once they both dished towards her. Andrew swiped at Visas's torso, while Brianna made a jab at her head. Visas deflected Andrew's blow and bent backwards to avoid Brianna's. Visas came back up and attempted to swing back at her, but was blocked by Andrew. Visas was then taken off her feet by a sharp sweep at her legs by Brianna. As her back hit she instantly was forced to raise her saber again to block both Andrew and Brianna's blades from coming down upon her. She gave a hard shove forcing them off of her. Visas then rolled a short distance and quickly got back to her feet. "You two are fast. I don't even see you move to the ground Sister of the Echani."

The two of them moved side by side, still holding their defensive pose. "That is only a glimpse of what we can do." Andrew made the next move, aiming for the emitter of Visas's lightsaber. It was easily deflected, and with a sharp twist of the wrist Visas's blade made contact with the side of Andrew's arm. She then followed with a powerful force push that knocked him several feet back. However, Visas did not get a moment's rest as she was once again bombarded by Brianna, who slid next to her and attempted to slice her in half. Visas barely moved her blade fast enough to stop the former Echani's attack. As their beams connected Visas felt an unfamiliar strength behind the assault. It took all she had to hold back it's momentum. She attempted to plant a roundhouse to Brianna's chest, however her leg was immediately caught by Andrew the instant her foot left the ground. With a seemingly effortless swing of his hips, Andrew tossed Visas across the room where she slid and hit hard agaInst a nearby pillar.

Visas slowly rose back to her feet, now wearing a deep rage on her face. She looked over at Andrew and noticed that the the wound she inflicted on his arm was no longer there, only a small hole through the sleeve of his robe. "How? I thought I injured you."

"You did, but our power flows freely between us now, such as Brianna's accelerated healing, only now it is much stronger than it has ever been before."

The hold on Visas's lightsaber tightened immensely. "I will not let you beat me."

"We already have. You just haven't accepted it yet."

At that moment Visas charged at the both of them. She swung wildly at their heads, but they showed no concern by simply continually stepping backwards out of her reach. After a several moments of avoiding her blind rage, Brianna spun around Visas and stabbed her from behind. Both shock and pain filled Visas's eyes as she fell to the floor. She could feel her body growing cold, stared up at, but this sensation was quickly replaced with the warmth of Andrew kneeling next to her. Visas looked up at him and soon tears began to fall down her face. "Why did you choose her?"

Unlike before Andrew was the only one who spoke this time. "She wanted to fight alongside me, you wanted to fight for me. You say you observed me, and fell for me from afar. That's not how love works. It takes time, patience, and getting to truly know one another."

"Did we not know each other?" Visas questioned, her voice becoming quite raspy.

"Not in the way Brianna and I did." Andrew tried sound as gentle as he could. There was no reason to hurt her more than she already had been.

"What did I do wrong?" Visas was truly desperate to understand what piece of information she was missing. Why she was overlooked.

Andrew continued to speak soothingly to her. "You didn't do anything wrong. You had just as much of a chance for me to fall for you. I just simply developed those feelings for Brianna first."

Although it wasn't what she wanted to, Visas still felt satisfied. "I'm sorry Andrew, I have been foolish."

Andrew shook his head and placed a hand to her cheek. "No, don't say that. It was the dark side residing within the mask, it took too much ahold of you."

The realization hit Visas as she was reminded of what started all of this in the first place. She weakly grasped onto Andrew's hand and pleaded with what little strength she had left. "Promise me you'll destroy it after I have left this world. No one must ever suffer the same fate as me."

At that moment Brianna also down next to Visas and said "We will destroy it, but you are not going to die this day."

Then both Andrew and Brianna placed their hands over Visas's wound and several strands of visible Force Energy started to emit from their palms. "What are you doing" Visas asked confused.

Brianna smiled at her and explained "Force Enlightenment heightens the normal limits of a Jedi. It can't raise people from the dead, but it should at least heal a mortal wound such as this." When they moved their hands away the hole through Visas's body was gone, and was replaced with faint ash marks."

Andrew looked over at the mask that sat a few feet away and called it to him with the Force. And as it floated in front of his, with a slow closing of his fist, the mask began to crumble to dust."

As this was done Visas began to sit up. "I feel the dark cloud around me fading away. Thank you so much."

Brianna placed on the woman's shoulder. "Try not to move too much. It will take a while for the healing to fully take effect."

The young Miraluka nodded, but a frown soon grew on her face. "I feel ashamed for so easily being corrupted. It felt like I was saying and doing things that I didn't truly mean." Visas then remembered something. "Wait, Atton."

Andrew held up a hand to her to keep her both calm and still. "Don't move, I'll check on him." He then ran over to the unconscious man in the center of the room.

While her husband did this, Brianna continued to reassure Visas. "You mustn't blame yourself for him. You were a captive of your own body."

Visas however, did not appear to feel any better. "I took away his hands, that may take awhile for him to forgive."

"Well you have plenty of time to make it up to me." Visas turned around to see Atton sitting up right with a pained grin. Andrew was kneeling next to him, attempting to use his newly enhanced force healing to tend to Atton's hands. "So what's the prognosis doc, are we gonna be able to save my second favorite pair of appendages."

Andrew did not look at his friend, he simply stared at the recently amputated limbs and sighed. "We can replace damaged tissue and bone, but to completely recreate body parts may still be out of the realm of possibility."

The strands of energy swirled around what was left Atton's two limbs, but the did nothing more than bull the pain for him. He took a deep breathe himself and said "Ah well, there are worse things to lose." He peered back over to Visas. "How you holding up?"

"I...I.." She stuttered.

"It's okay I know" he interrupted. "We all lose it every once in awhile, because of the people we love." Andrew knew what Atton was raging to, and he respected him admitting his mistake.

"That is very astute." A new voice called from across the room. "Maybe you're not as much of a fool as you once were." The voice was revealed to be Kreia surrounded in a blue aura walking towards them.

Atton immediately jumped to his feet. "What the hell! Am I the only one seeing this."

Andrew stood up also and placed a hand on the man's shoulder. "Relax Atton, Kreia's spirit has frequently been appearing to me as of late."

"Yes and the effort of doing so is quite exhausting." Kreia looked over to Brianna and shined her signature grin. "You fought well today Handmaiden. You have grown much stronger since I last encountered you." She then turned back to Andrew. "And exile, it was quite clever to combine your power like that. Once again you have access to the full extent of your Force Enlightenment."

Andrew nodded. "It is a sensational feeling, but sadly I have to disappoint you." Both he and Brianna closed their eyelids for a brief moment, and then when they reopened them the glowing blue tint in their eyes were gone. "The effects are only temporary, I still only retain half of that power."

Kreia, however, did not seem to be shaken. "That is perfectly fine, I think your wife should keep the other half. She deserves it."

Visas spoke up now in confusion. "I'm sorry, I feel like I have missed something. Why are you all of sudden showing sympathy to the sister of the Echani."

"Because she is my mother" Brianna said with a smile. Everyone, including Andrew, stood in shock. Brianna then stood up from kneeling with Visas continued to explain. "Only in death is she fully connected with her true emotions."

Kreia turned to Andrew with a disappointed glare, however he innocently exclaimed "I didn't tell her."

"He didn't have to" Brianna said while moving next to him. "When we were connected a moment ago, I saw it within his mind."

A deep frown grew on Kreia's face. "Brianna I'm so sorry that I was never there for you. I fell so far into darkness that only death could bring me out of it. I was fully aware of you as my daughter, but the guilt in my heart would not let me confess to you. Even after I enacted my plan, and I used you to get to Atris, deep down I still loved you. And I hoped that you would never find out about me. That your virtuous opinion of me would always stay pure."

Fully expecting a blowback from her daughter Kreia braced herself by lowering her head, but this did not happen. Brianna's smile remained on her face and she cheerfully said "You act like it has already changed." Kreia looked back up at her in surprise. "You may have made some bad choices in the past, but for the last few days you have done everything you can to help Andrew and myself. I'm not sure about everyone else, but to me you've redeemed yourself."

A smile slowly grew on Kreia's face. "Thank you so much. You don't know what it means to hear that from you."

Brianna turned to her husband and said "Andrew I think I know what I want to name our baby girl."

"What's that?"

She then looked back at the faint image of Kreia and grinned from ear to ear. "Arren, after my mother."

Small tears started to appear in the departed woman's eyes. Andrew grinned also while looking at his old master, Putting an arm around Brianna he gently nodded. "That sounds perfect."

...End of Ch 9...

Author's Post Notes- There you have it guys. How'd enjoy the story's climax. There is one last chapter left in Shadow, and I'm sure it'll answer any questions that still linger. I cannot promise that it will come out very soon, however, I will try to not make so long of a wait. Until then bear with me.


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